scholarly journals Collaborative tasks and learning occasions in English as a foreign language

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marília dos Santos Lima

The study reported here forms part of a program of qualitative research focusing on the use of collaborative tasks in learning English as a foreign language in Brazil. The research examines the concept of collaborative dialogue (SWAIN, 2000), understood as dialogue that constructs linguistic knowledge within a sociocultural view of language learning. The results indicated that the learners reflected upon the target language, tested hypotheses and reformulated their production in order to promote mutual comprehension in the learning process. The results also revealed that the interaction established during the production of the collaborative dialogue stimulated foreign language learning as the students noticed linguistic gaps in the target language, and sought solutions together.

Author(s):  
Dongshuo Wang ◽  
Bin Zou ◽  
Minjie Xing

This research investigates the interaction between English students learning Chinese in the UK and Chinese students learning English in China via a wiki platform. Activity theory and legitimate peripheral participation theory were employed as a theoretical framework; wiki was embedded as an interactive learning tool. The findings revealed that Chinese native speakers assisted English students learning Chinese as foreign language (CFL) by means of reorganizing word orders and restructuring sentence patterns. The usages of clarification and elaboration were more frequent than the usages of added and deleted information. Both CFL and English as foreign language (EFL) students interacted with each other in attending to language forms through the essay correction and revision process, and the interaction consequently enhanced their target language learning. The study suggests that wiki provides a dynamic platform, which encourages further integration into the syllabus to support foreign language learning.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Sangkala

In foreign Language learning context, there are various factors that influence the learning process such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learning achievements, aptitudes, intelligence, age, personalities, etc. The matter of learner’s attitude is acknowledged as one of the most important factors that impact on learning language. This study looks into the concept of attitude as one of the major affective factors for success in learning a foreign language.


Author(s):  
Ryuko Kubota

Historically, foreign language education in Japan has been influenced by local and global conditions. Of the two major purposes of learning a language—to gain new knowledge from overseas and to develop practical communication skills—the latter pragmatic orientation became dominant toward the end the 19th century, when access to foreign language learning increased and English became a dominant language to learn. The trend of learning English as an international language for pragmatic purposes has been further strengthened since the 1980s under the discourses of internationalization and neoliberal globalization. An overview of the current status of foreign language education reveals that there are both formal and non-formal learning opportunities for people of all ages; English predominates as a target language although fewer opportunities to learn other languages exist; English is taught at primary and secondary schools and universities with an emphasis on acquiring communicative skills, although the exam-oriented instructional practices contradict the official goal; and adults learn foreign languages, mainly English, for various reasons, including career advancement and hobbyist enjoyment. Such observations include contestations and contradictions. For instance, there have been debates on whether the major aim of learning English should be pragmatic or intellectual. These debates have taken place against the backdrop of the fact that the learning of a foreign language—de facto English—is much more prevalent in society in the early 21st century compared with previous periods in history, when access to learning opportunities was limited to elites. Another contradiction is between the multilingual reality in local and global communities and the exclusive emphasis on teaching English. This gap can be critically analyzed through a critical realist lens, through which multilayers of ideology in discourses and realities in the material world are examined. The predominance of English is driven by a neoliberal ideology that conceptualizes English as a global language with economic benefit, while testing and shadow education enterprises perpetuate the emphasis on English language teaching. The political economy of foreign language education also explains the longstanding socioeconomic disparity in English ability.


Author(s):  
Yunita Widyaningsih

Learning foreign language means learn all aspects of the language, such as language features, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, grammar, structure and culture. The different of these aspects from target language and native language will create different form output both of them, that known as the interlanguage. Interlanguage fossilization is common in the process of foreign language learning, which causes foreign language learners not make progress any more. Based on teaching learning process condition, researcher applied the strategies to overcome interlanguage fossilization by using flipped learning in pandemic era. This research focuses on grammatical errors. This study belongs to quantitative method. The study conducted in the pandemic era when the teaching learning process of the students in Padang applied in two shifts both face to face learning and online learning. The research conducted in 3 weeks of learning process. each week consists of two meetings by applying flipped learning Approach. The result of this study showed that there was positive effect of using strategies in flipped learning to overcome their fossilization of target language. The result indicates that almost all of the learners’ grammatical errors could be eliminated step by step and need more process and times.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Wuri Syaputri ◽  
Fenny Theresia ◽  
Fatma Yuniarti

Language and culture are two things that are interrelated in human life, especially in learning and langage teaching. The objective of this study is to dercribe the understanding of culture in learning English. This research belongs to qualitative research which applies libraries research to collect the data. The introduction of this culture is especially recommended for foreign language learning which places more emphasis on developing communication skills with the target language. The introduction of culture in learning English process can reduce the potential for misunderstandings to occur during the communication process.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-215
Author(s):  
Flavia Kaba

Abstract Due to the rapid developments in educational technology, today’s professors are in search of exploring innovative techniques in order to promote involvement of students in the learning process in general and in the foreign language learning process in particular. This is why today’s students are seen as digital-natives and being motivated for the learning process is very difficult if the modern technology they are familiar with is not utilized effectively in the classroom. When it comes to the assessment part of this process, the situation may become worse, as most of the students feel unwilling due to anxiety problems in general and foreign language anxiety in particular. This study presents an innovative way of assessing students’ skills that they gain during foreign language learning process introducing Edmodo, which is an educational social network that provides a secure learning platform for students and educators. This study is a descriptive one, based on the analyses, surveys, and opinions of different researchers that have implemented this platform in their teaching process. The main objective is to introduce the implementation of various assessment applications through Edmodo.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2245-2249
Author(s):  
Suzana Ejupi ◽  
Lindita Skenderi

Working with English learners for many years, gives you the opportunity to encounter linguistic obstacles that they face while learning English language as a foreign language. Additionally, teaching for 13 years and observing the learning process, it enables you to recognize the students’ needs and at the same time, detect linguistic mistakes that they make, while practicing the target language. During my experience as a teacher, in terms of teaching and learning verbs in general and its grammatical categories in specific, it is noticed that Albanian learners find it relatively difficult the correct use of verbs in context and even more confusing the equivalent use of verbs in Albanian. Since verbs present an important part of speech, this study aims to investigate several differences and similarities between grammatical categories of verbs in English and Albanian. As a result, the Albanian learners of English language will be able to identify some of the major differences and similarities between the grammatical categories of verbs in English and Albanian; overcome the usual mistakes; gain the necessary knowledge regarding verbs and use them properly in English and Albanian.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maram S. Almohaimeed ◽  
Huda M. Almurshed

Whether to avoid learners’ first language (L1) or to make use of it in the second language (L2) classes is a controversial issue. Some studies have challenged the effectiveness of the monolingual approach to foreign language learning. This study investigates Saudi university learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards incorporating their L1(Arabic) in English class. This study also sheds light into the relationship between students’ perceptions and proficiency level in the target language. To this end, Gaebler's questionnaire (2014) was administered to 60 female learners studying in the preparatory year at a Saudi university. They were from three different English proficiency levels. The results showed that advanced learners hold a negative attitude towards the use of L1 in their English classes, whereas elementary and intermediate learners generally perceive the judicious use of their L1 positively.


Author(s):  
Suci Farianti

The research focused on the social factors which can influence the students’ achievement in learning English. Social factors are believed as the factors which play a crucial role in language learning and it can give impacts on foreign language learning. In this case, this research was conducted to investigate the impacts of social factors of parents’ economic level, Parents’ education level, parents’ occupation level and the environment on students’ achievement in learning English as a foreign language. The objects of the research were 10 students with special need and their parents at the eighth grade of SLB Negeri Pembina Aceh Tamiang. In conducting the data, the test and the questionnaire were designed. The twenty question items of the test were given to the students and an eighteen item of questionnaire were given to the parents’ to find out the require information on the social factors. In addition, in analyzing the data, all available data were processed by SPSS 17.0 for descriptive, correlation, ANOVA, and predictive analysis. Furthermore, based on the finding and the result of the research, the hypothesis (H0) of the research was rejected. In other word, there was no a significant correlation between social factors namely parents’ economic level, parents’ education level, parent’s  occupation level and environment on students’ achievement in learning English. Therefore, it can be stated that the variety of the students’ scores were not influenced by the social factors discussed on this research in which it was probably influenced by other factors such as the personality of the students, the students’ disability, etc.


Author(s):  
Firooz Sadighi ◽  
Shahrzad Chahardahcherik ◽  
Maryam Delfariyan ◽  
Fariba Feyzbar

In Iran the age of learning English as a foreign language is decreasing yearly. It is obvious that learning English at a very early age is a most appropriate time to start. The investigation in this study is focused on the speech act of request. Instructional effects of learning request strategies are assessed in preschoolers who received instruction to find out whether the exposure to the foreign language learning enhances the development of request strategy use and brings about changes in their first language strategy use features. The data were collected from 10 preschool Iranian learners of English as a foreign language. The participants of the study took a two-semester speaking course in an academic setting in Iran. The study had a pretest and posttest design in which 10 conversations were used including polite request strategies of English to analyze instructional effects on the learners’ first language after the posttest, by comparing and measuring the backward transfer against the pretest results. The oral task was in the form of role plays which were also utilized for communicative practice with the learners. The data were rated for the extent of a foreign language effect on the first language by experienced tutors and linguistic analyses were done to identify the foreign language components of request strategies features in the first language production. Results showed that frequent use of English request strategy features in the first language was an indication of L2 students’ beneficial experience in their L1.


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