scholarly journals The impact of teachers’ limited English proficiency on English second language learners in South African schools

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 635-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma Nel ◽  
◽  
Heléne Müller
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
South African ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Voicing up in Debate Competition: Oral Development of Two Malaysian ESL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Amiri ◽  
Moomala Othman ◽  
Maryam Jahedi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Oral Development ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Impact

This research used a qualitative approach to focus on the classroom debate between Malaysian English second language learners (ESL). Since debate has been often perceived as not a suitable activity for low proficiency students due to their limited linguistic resources, there has not been much emphasis on the impact of debate on incompetent ESL learners; however, this study was an attempt to concentrate on two students who were not competent in English to investigate their oral development via debate. The study observed the communicative strategies employed in this challenging task during the five debate rounds. Although the progress made was quite limited, the study showed that debate competition can be a relevant and meaningful practice for speaking activity among low proficiency students. Moreover, it showed that debate can be used to scaffold students’ practice in speaking.

An investigation into the early literacy skills of English second language learners in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-154
Author(s):  
Aileen Manten ◽  
Mia le Roux ◽  
Salomé Geertsema ◽  
Marien Graham
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Literacy Skills ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Literacy Success ◽  
The Impact

This study employs the Comprehensive Emergent Literacy Model (CELM) theoretical framework, as it refers to the impact of context on learning early literacy skills. It is relevant to this study as the participants were English second language learners from cultures, communities, and demographics different from those of English first language speakers in South Africa. Early literacy skills, specifically phonological awareness (PA), are predictive of later literacy success. Many English second language (EL2) learners are unable to develop language and early literacy skills. Foundational skills such as general PA skills, often need explicit instruction to prepare the learners to learn to read in English. Twenty-one EL2 Grade 1 learners in an English medium private school in South Africa were selected as participants. Early literacy skills were assessed at the beginning of Grade 1. Reading, spelling, and reading comprehension skills were assessed after two terms in Grade 1 to determine if there is a correlation between early and later literacy skills. Results indicated significantly strong positive correlations between early literacy and later literacy skills. These results and previous research suggest that EL2 learners must be exposed to high-quality early literacy skills as early as possible to provide them with a foundation for future literacy success.

English second-language learners in preschool

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 342-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanne Paradis ◽  
Anna Kirova
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Parent Questionnaire ◽  
English Second Language

The objectives of this study were twofold: (1) Determine the English proficiency of English second-language learners (ELLs) at the end of preschool as referenced to monolingual norms, and in particular, to determine if they showed an asynchronous profile, that is, approached monolingual norms more closely for some linguistic sub-skills than others; (2) Investigate the role of home language environment in predicting individual differences in children’s English proficiency. Twenty-one ELL children (mean age = 58 months) from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds with diverse first-language backgrounds participated in the study. Children’s English proficiency was measured using a standardized story-telling instrument that yielded separate scores for their narrative, grammatical and vocabulary skills. A parent questionnaire was used to gather information about children’s home language environments. The ELL children displayed an asynchronous profile in their English development, as their standard scores varied in terms of proximity to monolingual norms; narrative story grammar was close to the standard mean, but mean length of utterance was below 1 standard deviation from the standard mean. No differences were found between the story-telling scores of the Canadian-born and foreign-born children, even though Canadian-born children were exposed to more English at home. Implications of the findings for clinicians and educators working with young ELLs are discussed.

scholarly journals The impact of English as medium of instruction on the academic performance of second language learners in the Further Education and Traning band at schools in KwaZulu-Natal

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rajendren Sabapathy Dorasamy
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
The Impact

This study, in adopting a phenomenological approach, provides an overview of the contextual realities surrounding language choice and usage as it impacts on the academic performance of English second language learners. There have been concerns that the majority of learners with indigenous mother tongues can be seen to fare badly in a post liberation educational system in which English or Afrikaans is still used as medium of instruction. The focus of this study was therefore the impact of English as the medium of instruction on the academic performance of English second language learners. Using a mixed method approach, through a case study, data from questionnaires, interviews and observations were analysed using various statistical packages and the findings were reported on. It was established that it was not so much the language per se which had a negative impact on the academic performance of English second language learners: it was rather the efficacy of usage of the chosen language and other periphery issues in the formal environment, such as lack of interactions with target language speakers, code-switching, and teacher competence, which resulted in the poor academic performance of English second language learners. Furthermore, it was also established that the informal environment, consisting of learners’ culture and traditions, family educational qualifications, absenteeism and appropriate resources at home and community libraries, which also had a negative impact on academic performance. It was therefore recommended that, amongst other things, the Language in Education Policy be amended to provide for more opportunities for learner interaction with the target language. Furthermore, given that the efficacy of education is contingent upon the competence of the teachers, relevant skills and competencies among teachers should be developed to enhance their performance in class. It was also found that code-switching was counterproductive to learning the target language, thus holding back ESL learners’ acquisition of content knowledge. As such, code-switching should be used very restrictively, if at all, in the Further Education and Training phase. It was also recommended that necessary lexicons and registers of the indigenous languages be developed sufficiently so that these are worthy of use as media of instruction, without necessarily being seen as a replacement of English as medium of instruction. There should also be greater involvement of all stakeholders in the choice of and availability of resources which are relevant to the context of learners. Other issues requiring intervention from a broader stakeholder involvement include iii interdepartmental integration to alleviate poverty, and provision of transport so that learners might report regularly and timeously to school, thus reducing absenteeism. The solution to improving learner academic performance requires concerted and co-ordinated inter-governmental, community and other stakeholders’ effort and the necessary will of the government to ensure that learners receive quality education.

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

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.

Vowel learning in diglossic settings: Evidence from Arabic-Greek learners

2020 ◽  
pp. 136700692094539
Author(s):  
Georgios P Georgiou ◽  
Charalambos Themistocleous
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Variety Versus ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Formant Frequency ◽  
Egyptian Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
The Impact

Aim and questions: Second language learners are often acquiring a second language (L2) in multilingual and bidialectal sociolinguistic environments. The competing pronunciations can be challenging to language learners. This study aims to determine the effects of language variety—standard variety versus local variety—on L2 vowel learning. Methodology: Vowel productions from 55 speakers were analyzed in the study; 10 speakers of Egyptian Arabic were recorded in a reading task producing Greek vowels and their vowel productions were compared to L1 vowel productions produced by 20 Standard Modern Greek and 25 Cypriot Greek speakers from a study by Themistocleous. Data and analysis: We conducted linear mixed effects models and tested the effects of language variety, vowel, and stress on the first and second formant frequency and on vowel duration. Findings: Egyptian Arabic speakers merge the middle Greek vowels /e/ and /o/ and the high /i/ and /u/ vowels. Also, they did not differentiate phonetically between L2 stressed and unstressed vowels. These findings are arguably an effect of the L1 vowel structure on L2 vowels. The two varieties exercised competing effects on learners’ vowel productions, which suggests that both varieties are influencing vowel learning. Originality: There has been substantial research on L2 vowel learning in monolingual environments but not in diglossic environments; this study fills this gap by offering evidence about vowel learning in diglossic environments. Implications: In modern societies, communication takes place in multilingual environments. The findings highlight the impact of diglossia on L2 vowel learning and, ultimately, they demonstrate the importance of sociolinguistic factors on L2 learning.

One size fits all? In search of the desirable caption display for second language learners with different caption reliance in listening comprehension

2019 ◽  
pp. 136216881985645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping-Jung Lee ◽  
Yeu-Ting Liu ◽  
Wen-Ta Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Transient Nature ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Comprehension Aids ◽  
The Impact

Existing research has established captions as effective second-language (L2) or foreign language (FL) listening comprehension aids. However, due to the transient nature of captions, not all learners are capable of attending to captions in all cases. Previous work posited that to leverage the impact of technologies in learning and instruction, a better understanding of the interplay between technology and cognition is warranted. In this vein, the current study set out to investigate the effects of four different caption modes (full vs. partial vs. real-time vs. control) on the listening comprehension of 95 high-intermediate Taiwanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different caption reliance (i.e. more-caption-reliant vs. less-caption-reliant). The results showed no significant difference between the participants’ listening comprehension outcomes under the four caption conditions when their caption reliance was not considered. However, when this was considered, the differences among the four caption conditions became salient, which was suggestive of the selective effect of captions on L2 learners with different caption reliance. While less-caption-reliant L2 learners had the best listening comprehension outcome under the partial-caption condition and the worst under the full-caption condition, more-caption-reliant L2 learners exhibited the best performance under the full-caption condition yet the worst under the partial-caption condition. The finding underscores the importance of considering L2 learners’ processing profiles when utilizing captioned videos as multimodal instructional/learning materials and speaks to the need of utilizing differentiated video materials for optimal listening outcomes.

Gestures by advanced Spanish-English second-language learners

Gesture ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Sherman ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Symbolic Gestures ◽  
L1 English

We examined the role of deictic (i.e., point) and symbolic (i.e., imagistic) gestures in advanced Spanish-English second-language learners to determine whether the role of gestures is consistent with that of intermediate second-language learners (i.e., Gullberg, 1998). Participants (10 L1 Spanish and 10 L1 English) watched two short cartoons and re-told the stories in both of their languages to native-speaking listeners who had never seen the film. Gestures were coded and analyzed in relation to word types from the verbal narratives. We found that participants used more deictic gestures in their second language, similar to the trend noted in previous research. Contrary to research with low or intermediate proficiency participants, however, symbolic gestures did not appear related to proficiency. Possible reasons for the differences in gesture use by proficiency are discussed.

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