Using drama activities to teach beginner’s French to Chinese students at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong: An exploratory case study

The exam-oriented education system in Hong Kong has created a language learning environment that is largely confined to traditional classroom settings, which may not take best advantage of students’ abilities to relate what they have learnt in class to real-life scenarios. Such learning environments may have implications for the way second language learners learn a new language. Numerous studies suggest that drama activities used in language classrooms can enhance second language learning. These studies put forward tasks that generate pleasant and rewarding experiences, enhance confidence and subsequently increase motivation to learn a language. By focusing on students studying in a beginning French course at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, this article reports on how drama activities make a target language more enjoyable and easier to recall. Classroom observations and interviews with students (N = 30) revealed that learning French via drama had a number of positive effects on second language learners especially in terms of their confidence. The learning of French through drama may provide a language learning environment that enables students to apply their French language skills more effectively in real-life situations.

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Setting/interlocutor-related variation in oral performance of adult ESL learners

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/aral.18.1.08cho ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 129-146

Author(s):

Zofia Cholewka

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Real Life ◽

Task Demands ◽

Target Language ◽

Language Transfer ◽

Oral Performance ◽

Adult Esl

Abstract The performance of six adult intermediate second-language learners on an oral task was examined. The subjects, sharing a number of characteristics, e.g. the source language (Polish), performed the same task twice, with two different interlocutors, in two different settings (familiar vs. ‘real-life’). The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of the familiarity of the setting/ interlocutor factors on the subjects’ performance. To analyse the surface structure errors obtained from the two interviews, Selinker’s (1972) error taxonomy was employed, thus yielding five error categories: language transfer, overgeneralization, simplification, communication based and teaching induced errors. The findings revealed that the unfamiliar, ‘real-life’ setting elicited significantly higher proportion of language transfer errors than the same task performed in the familiar environment. It is argued that adult, intermediate second-language learners, in a new, ‘real-life’ social setting, when confronted with an unfamiliar native speaker of the target language, revert to their native language, fall back on their prior knowledge to facilitate the task demands.

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Second Language Learners’ Family Background and Their English Writing Competence: The Case of a Private Tertiary Institution in Ghana

Studies in English Language Teaching ◽

10.22158/selt.v3n4p466 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 466

Author(s):

Edward Owusu ◽

John Agor ◽

Evershed Kwasi Amuzu

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Family Background ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Tertiary Institution ◽

Writing Competence ◽

At Home

This work assesses the effects of family background of second language learners on their academic writing competence in English. A cursory study of some examination scripts of first-year students reveals some poor writing skills of students in areas such as concord, spelling, capitalization, and fragmentation errors.30 participants were selected from a class of 121 students from the Ghana Baptist University College, a private institution in Kumasi, Ghana. Initially, the class of 121 was sorted out into three groups—those who said they used only English at home, those who said they used only Ghanaian language(s) at home, and those who said they used both English and Ghanaian language(s) at home. Each group was further divided along gender lines and 5 students from each of the 6 sub-groups were picked randomly. The participants were then made to write a sit-in assessment on a topic and were graded by an independent assessor. The findings of the study reveal that the performance of the bilingual English and Ghanaian language learners outweighed those of their contemporaries. The study also revealed a positive correlation between attitudes of parents about English and learners’ academic writing skills. These have pedagogical and theoretical implications for the teaching and learning of English as a second language in Ghana. Language proficiency involves the development of skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All these four aspects of language development are equally vital in the language learning process, but the current paper focuses on the development of writing skills by second language learners of English in Ghana.

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Teaching Adult Second Language Learners Who Are Emergent Readers

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0267190511000109 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 120-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Martha Bigelow ◽

Patsy Vinogradov

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Learning Needs ◽

Formal Schooling ◽

Emergent Readers ◽

Print Literacy ◽

Historical Issues

Some second language (L2) learners are unique in that they bring low print literacy and limited formal schooling to the language learning enterprise. A range of personal, economic, historical, and political circumstances bring them to highly literate, industrialized societies where print literacy becomes not only desirable but necessary to earn a living and participate in a range of everyday activities. This article is a review of current research related to this population of learners for the purpose of informing educators about their particular teaching and learning needs. While the emphasis is on scholarship focused on adult L2 emergent readers, attention is also given to related research with bi- and multilingual children and monolingual adults who are not print literate. Finally, sociopolitical and historical issues are touched upon with regard to broader policy matters that may have contributed to or perpetuate low print literacy.

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Googleology for second language learning

Language Learning in Higher Education ◽

10.1515/cercles-2021-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 453-469

Author(s):

Patrizia Giampieri

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Language Skills ◽

Linguistic Research ◽

Advanced Search ◽

The World ◽

Google Search

Abstract The World Wide Web has often been considered too vast to be consulted for linguistic purposes or for language learning. This paper will explore whether second language learners can be taught how to navigate the web (i.e., how to perform Google linguistic research, or “Googleology”), in order to improve their language skills. To this aim, a 2 h trial lesson was organized. The trial lesson was delivered to 78 apprentices, divided into groups of 10–15, over a period of six months. During the lesson, the participants were taught how to work with Google Advanced Search syntax. At the end of the lesson, they applied the newly-acquired skills by completing a few tasks concerning term and/or collocational search. The paper findings will highlight that, despite initial hesitation or inaccuracies in completing the exercises, the tasks were performed well. The participants considered the lesson interesting, useful and enjoyable. They felt engaged irrespective of the level of their second language (L2) knowledge, and were more confident in approaching Google Search for linguistic purposes.

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Perceived usefulness predicts second language learners’ continuance intention toward language learning applications: a serial multiple mediation model of integrative motivation and flow

Education and Information Technologies ◽

10.1007/s10639-021-10822-7 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Xuebin Wang ◽

Aitao Lu ◽

Tao Lin ◽

Siyi Liu ◽

Tianhua Song ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Perceived Usefulness ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Multiple Mediation ◽

Continuance Intention ◽

Integrative Motivation

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The 'Third Place': Investigating an ESL Classroom Interculture

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v22i1.162 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Xuemei Li ◽

Anita Girvan

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Cultural Identities ◽

Third Place ◽

Cultural Space ◽

The Third ◽

The Creation ◽

Esl Classroom

This study focuses on a multicultural ESL classroom with the purpose of exploring the creation of new individual and cultural identities and the formation of interculture. Through on-site observations and interviews with second-language learners and their teacher, the study presents findings about the dynamics, quandaries, complexity, and diversity of classroom interculture. The metaphor of the 'third place' (Kramsch, 1993) aptly captures the nature of this interculture in its fluidity and ambiguity. Perceiving language-learning in this way allows one to look beyond the traditional dichotomous views and approaches to culture and identity in ESL settings and to describe properly the enriching process of creating new identity and new cultural space that is greater than the sum of individual cultures.

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The Impact of Wait Time Instruction and Teaching Experience on Teachers’ Feedback in Moroccan Speaking Classes

10.31235/osf.io/d2vey ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Arab World English Journal ◽

Sana SAKALE

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Wait Time ◽

Teaching Experience ◽

Historical Background ◽

Ex Post ◽

Ex Post Facto ◽

The Impact

Instruction plays a major role in the development of speaking skills for second language learners. Different approaches and methods have emerged throughout the history of language learning/teaching based on the influence of different theories of language, psychology, and related domains such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and cultural studies. Two major trends in language teaching emerged under the influence of these mentioned language theories, namely, accuracy based versus fluency based approaches. This article gives a historical sketch up to these trends in an attempt to provide a historical background and to empirically bring evidence that wait time instruction and teaching experience can impact classroom feedback in Moroccan classes. Relevant questions related to the role of teachers’ experience in leading different types of feedback, the effect of the number of teaching years as well as the correlation between wait time instruction and the corresponding teaching experience are closely investigated. This article adheres to a mixed design or what has been identified in research methodology as ex-post facto (Cohen, Manion, Morrison, 2007). Therefore, it is both a qualitative and a descriptive one. For the type of instructions used, the results obtained show the insignificance of the impact of experience on this variable. On the other hand, results retained that wait- time instruction in comparison to other items recorded a higher significance of the impact of experience. Therefore, current article brings empirical evidence on how wait- time instruction plays a crucial role in spoken activity for second language learners.

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Helping Second Language Student Writers Improve Their Revision

Writing across the University of Alberta ◽

10.29173/writingacrossuofa29 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Wenzhe Kang ◽

Ruiyi Zhang

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Comprehensive Evaluation ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Student Writers ◽

Writing Ability ◽

Language Students

Writing ability is a comprehensive evaluation of language learning level. Nowadays, most universities offer writing-related courses to help students lay a good foundation for writing and contribute to their subsequent studies. Compared with native English speakers, second language learners need to do more revision, which is a great challenge for second language learners. Therefore, in this paper, the aim is to make the second language students understand and apply the revision correctly.

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Discourse Competence Development in English as Second Language Learners: Effect of Poems on Proficiency and Performance

sjesr ◽

10.36902/sjesr-vol3-iss4-2020(268-274) ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 268-274

Author(s):

Dr. Shaukat Ali ◽

Mr. Saddam Hussain ◽

Mr. Iftekhar Ali

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Treatment Group ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Control Group ◽

Teaching Materials ◽

Post Test ◽

Field Notes ◽

Discourse Competence

This study investigates the effect of poems as language teaching materials on the discourse competence of English as a second language learners (ESL) learners. Discourse competence is one of the sub-skills of English speaking skills which has further been divided into two sub-skills called 1) organizing a coherent conversation and 2) then maintaining it. It was a quasi-experimental study consisting of a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG) from the faculty of social sciences, University of Malakand, Pakistan. They were the students of the third semester and were taught English as a minor course. Before the commencement of the experiment, the students of both groups were subjected to a speaking type pre-test. Immediately after the pre-test, the control group was taught through traditional teaching materials whereas; the treatment group was treated with poems as teaching materials. Moreover, observation field notes were employed to find out the reasons behind the performance of the students of both groups. After a six-week experiment, a post-test similar in nature to the pre-test was dispensed among the groups. The scores of the respondents of both groups were compared by using independent samples t-tests. The outcomes indicated that the learners in the treatment group scored significantly higher on the post-test than the learners in the comparison group. The observation field notes further displayed that the students of the treatment group were actively involved in the language learning process. Moreover, they associated the text of poetry with their, socio-cultural, and personal lives. Additionally, they enjoyed greater autonomy due to ambiguity and universality in the texts of the poems. The study suggests that poems should be utilized as teaching materials in ESL classrooms.

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‘transformative’ potential of translanguaging and other heteroglossic educational practices

Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices ◽

10.1558/jmtp.16459 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 266-289

Author(s):

M. Rafael Salaberry

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Practical Implementation ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Linguistic Resources ◽

The Us ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Over the last few decades, there has been an increased awareness about imprecise, inaccurate and, thus, unfair conceptualisations of language based on monoglossic views of language that delegitimise the linguistic repertoire of multilingual minorities as is the case of heritage speakers of Spanish in the US or speakers of Lingua Franca English worldwide. At the same time, there are theoretical and educational proposals that offer new conceptualisations of multilingualism focused on the concept of heteroglossia, which, in contrast with monoglossic views, focuses our attention on the fluid and full use of all linguistic resources available to language learners/users as they engage in the process of interacting with their interlocutors. In the present paper, I describe an important challenge that compromises the valuable agenda of heteroglossic approaches to develop multilingualism: the effect of listeners’ biases and reverse linguistic stereotyping. That is, educational programmes designed to counteract the negative effect of monoglossic approaches to second language learning in general cannot adopt a segregationist approach (neither in their theoretical design nor in their practical implementation). To place this challenge in context, I describe in detail the specific example of Spanish heritage second language learners at the tertiary level of education in the US setting and I also provide a broad outline of potential improvements in the curricular design of such programmes.

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