scholarly journals Effects of Creating an English Language Club on Intermediate Learners' Attitudes and Linguistic Achievement

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Ranwa Khorsheed ◽  
Dareen Assaf ◽  
Abdulaziz Al-Dammad
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Remedial Courses ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Short Films ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Linguistic Achievement ◽  
The University ◽  
Oral Presentations

This paper discusses the efforts of a group of ELT instructors at a private Syrian university, Arab International University (AIU), to modify students' attitudes towards general English remedial courses at the Foreign Languages Center (FLC) of the university. After analyzing the results of a questionnaire distributed to clarify the students' linguistic needs and assess their motivation, it was concluded that most students preferred interactive language exercises to theoretical text book activities. Thus, the instructors have resorted to practical methods embodied in establishing an English language club that seeks to fulfill students' needs. The club focused on two motivational activities: reading tabloids and making documentary short films. Consequently, regular weekly sessions were organized to hold these activities. All in all, students' attitudes were greatly enhanced and have become more positive. It was also noted that the students have become self-motivated to the extent of generating new and original ideas that will enrich the English language club at AIU. Furthermore, the students were able to achieve remarkable enhancement on their linguistic skills especially those of reading, writing and speaking in addition to acquiring and improving other personal skills e.g. team work, organizing and planning projects, and communicating ideas via oral presentations.

scholarly journals Jordanian University Students’ Attitudes toward Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdowns: Obstacles and Solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-159
Author(s):  
Safi Mahmoud Mahfouz ◽  
Wael Juma Salam
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The University

This study aimed to investigate Jordanian university students’ attitudes toward online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, shed light on the obstacles students encounter in online learning, and suggest possible solutions. A questionnaire designed by the researchers was used to elicit responses from a study sample consisting of 195 students from the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Jordan – Aqaba. As this is an attitudinal study, the survey questionnaire was designed to elicit student responses on the following domains: gender, seniority level, socioeconomic status, training and orientation for using eLearning platforms, and their attitudes, whether positive or negative, toward online learning. Results of this quantitative research showed that student attitudes toward online learning are generally negative. The majority of the respondents reported that they prefer face-to-face classroom instruction over online learning because it gives them direct contact with the instructors. Furthermore, results revealed statistically significant differences amongst students attributed to their gender, whereas no differences were found with regards to their seniority of study, socioeconomic status, and the eLearning platform they prefer to use. The study concludes by proposing some pedagogical recommendations.

scholarly journals A Genre-Based Investigation of the Introduction Sections of Academic Oral Presentations

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Kuldip Kaur Makhtiar Singh ◽  
Afida Mohamad Ali ◽  
Mei Yuit Chan ◽  
Helen Tan
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Oral Presentation ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Genre Awareness ◽  
Genre Knowledge ◽  
The University ◽  
Oral Presentations

The academic oral presentation (henceforth AOP) is an important genre for tertiary students across various courses and disciplines in the university. Despite the importance of AOPs for undergraduate students, relatively little is known about this genre. Using Swales’ (1990, 2004) notion of move analysis,  this paper compares the rhetorical structure of the introduction sections of academic oral presentations from two different fields, namely English language and Administrative Sciences. The findings show some similarities in the AOPs whereby the introduction section contained three moves, and their related steps were similar to previous studies on the rhetorical structure of oral presentations but with few variations.  The linguistic features used were also found to be similar in both corpora revealing that students were able to transfer their rhetorical knowledge and linguistic features from one context to another. This study reveals that variation in AOPs is possible in different courses and disciplines. Thus, having genre awareness can help students adapt their genre knowledge to the context.

scholarly journals Attitude of Francophone Students towards Pidgin at the University of Buea (UB)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 87-93
Author(s):  
Blasius A. Chiatoh ◽  
Clovis N. Nkwain
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Standard Code ◽  
Opportunities For Learning ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

Although English is the official language of the University of Buea (UB), Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) is quite commonly used on campus, particularly in extra curricula situations by Anglophones, who have it as their language of wider communication (LWC). However, Francophone students, some of whom meet CPE for their first time upon enrolment, tend to manifest much dislike for this language. Faced with the challenge of maximising the opportunities for learning and studying in English, a language in which they have limited spoken and written competence in, they view CPE as a sub-standard code, indeed, an impediment to the English language learning process. This paper surveys Francophone students’ attitudes towards CPE at UB with focus on the underlying motivations for these attitudes. Data was elicited from a questionnaire administered to first-year Francophone students. The findings evince that Francophone students harbour unfriendly attitudes towards CPE.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF PEER EVALUATION IN ORAL PRESENTATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herland Franley Manalu
Keyword(s):  
Oral Presentation ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Peer Evaluation ◽  
Spss Software ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Strongly Agree ◽  
The University ◽  
Oral Presentations

This study aims at examining students’ perception of peer evaluation in a group oral presentation by English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students at the University of Indonesia. Questionnaires were administered after the peer evaluation process to 65 students studying EAP taught at the University of Indonesia. The peer assessment was incorporated into the course to seek out whether and to what extent their speaking skills may enhance and to investigate students’ attitudes towards this form of evaluation in oral presentations. Data were obtained through a Likert scale questionnaire of peer evaluation. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software. The results specified a statistically significant result of the use of peer evaluation in oral presentation. The findings of the present study suggest that, when assessment criteria are definitely established, peer assessment empowers students to evaluate the performance of their peers in a manner comparable to those of the teachers. The responses from the questionnaires show that the evaluation and comments given by students were considered fair, useful and sufficient. Results also suggest that students strongly agree to the use of this methodology because comments and evaluations given are useful for making improvements. Nevertheless, the students preferred teachers to peers to evaluate their performance in the discussion and they wanted to get more instructive comments from the teachers. As for its limitations, students highlight the responsibility that comes with it and a certain amount of distrust in fellow students’ abilities to peer-assess. The teacher’s possible roles in peer evaluation are presented at the conclusion of this study.

scholarly journals WORLD ENGLISHES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Beáta Biliková ◽  
Katarína Seresová
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
University Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Over the past few decades, the notion of World Englishes has achieved much attention among linguists, language teachers, and other professionals. The present study explores the impact these trends have had on university education in the field of English philology and culture, focusing on the study programmes run by the Applied Languages Faculty, the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia. Our research was designed to gain insights into the students’ perception of varieties of English and identify those areas which require more attention in order to provide students with the most relevant content. The research sample contained 130 students of one BA and one MA programme. Our research was based on a questionnaire which provided us with the data on students’ awareness of the studied issues. The data were subsequently processed using combined quantitative and qualitative methods. One part of the data was statistically analysed with regard to the frequency of certain aspects. The second part was analysed focusing on students’ attitudes and evaluative statements. Results of the analysis indicated both the key tendencies in their thought and the orientation of the occasional excentric views. The research outcomes enabled us to establish several important facts, e.g. a relatively insufficient understanding of the relevant terminology and concepts, high awareness of the existence of varieties of English, and, simultaneously, low awareness of the features distinguishing those varieties, etc. The conclusions point out those areas which should be represented more extensively in our curricula to reflect the actual current situation in the English language.  

scholarly journals WHY SHOULD ORAL PRESENTATIONS BE INTRODUCED IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AT TEACHER TRAINING FACULTIES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordana Ljubičić ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
The Third ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
University Level ◽  
Faculty Of Education ◽  
The University ◽  
Oral Presentations ◽  
Oral Skills

The students of the Faculty of Education of Uzice have the English language classes during four semesters at their initial studies, that is, during the first and the third year, and again at their master studies. During the first year they mainly develop their grammatical and linguistic competences by reading and translating the texts whose topics relate to their future profession. As the groups of students are rather large there is not much time left for developing their oral skills. This problem is, to some extent, overcome during the third year of studies when the groups become smaller and the teacher is able to dedicate more time to developing speaking skills in the class. A very good speaking task is the introduction of oral presentations. The topics are carefully chosen to arouse studentsʼ interests and to make them want to engage in this kind of activity. The paper discusses the advantages and the weak points of this kind of oral tasks at the university level studies.

Translation as a Teaching Tool in EFL Classes at the University Level

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. Dr. Hussein Ali Ahmad Ali ◽  
Dr. Idrees Ali Hasan Ali ◽  
Yaseen Alzeebaree
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Tool ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
University Level ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

The current research aims at studying students’ attitudes towards the instructors’ use oftranslation in EFL classes at university level. It hypothesizes that students have a positiveattitude towards instructors’ use of such a means. The research is limited to a sample of47 male and female 2nd year students at the department of English language, college ofLanguages, Nawroz University during the academic year 2020-2021. To study thesample’s attitudes, a questionnaire that subsumes (20) relevant items has been designedand administered to the sample of students. The results show that students have positiveattitudes towards their instructors use of translation in English as a Foreign language (EFL)classes at university level. In the light of such results, some recommendations have beenput forward.

The Center for International Biomedical Communications Research

1966 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 142-146
Author(s):  
A. Kent ◽  
P. J. Vinken
Keyword(s):  
Information Needs ◽  
English Language ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Biomedical Literature ◽  
Information Storage ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
University Of Pittsburgh ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
Excerpta Medica Foundation

A joint center has been established by the University of Pittsburgh and the Excerpta Medica Foundation. The basic objective of the Center is to seek ways in which the health sciences community may achieve increasingly convenient and economical access to scientific findings. The research center will make use of facilities and resources of both participating institutions. Cooperating from the University of Pittsburgh will be the School of Medicine, the Computation and Data Processing Center, and the Knowledge Availability Systems (KAS) Center. The KAS Center is an interdisciplinary organization engaging in research, operations, and teaching in the information sciences.Excerpta Medica Foundation, which is the largest international medical abstracting service in the world, with offices in Amsterdam, New York, London, Milan, Tokyo and Buenos Aires, will draw on its permanent medical staff of 54 specialists in charge of the 35 abstracting journals and other reference works prepared and published by the Foundation, the 700 eminent clinicians and researchers represented on its International Editorial Boards, and the 6,000 physicians who participate in its abstracting programs throughout the world. Excerpta Medica will also make available to the Center its long experience in the field, as well as its extensive resources of medical information accumulated during the Foundation’s twenty years of existence. These consist of over 1,300,000 English-language _abstract of the world’s biomedical literature, indexes to its abstracting journals, and the microfilm library in which complete original texts of all the 3,000 primary biomedical journals, monitored by Excerpta Medica in Amsterdam are stored since 1960.The objectives of the program of the combined Center include: (1) establishing a firm base of user relevance data; (2) developing improved vocabulary control mechanisms; (3) developing means of determining confidence limits of vocabulary control mechanisms in terms of user relevance data; 4. developing and field testing of new or improved media for providing medical literature to users; 5. developing methods for determining the relationship between learning and relevance in medical information storage and retrieval systems’; and (6) exploring automatic methods for retrospective searching of the specialized indexes of Excerpta Medica.The priority projects to be undertaken by the Center are (1) the investigation of the information needs of medical scientists, and (2) the development of a highly detailed Master List of Biomedical Indexing Terms. Excerpta Medica has already been at work on the latter project for several years.

Tertiary English-majored Students’ Perceptions toward the Role of Pronunciation in English Language Learning and their Practicing Strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The University

Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020

Problems in English Communicating Skills for Learners of English

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (07) ◽  
pp. 20484-20491
Author(s):  
Dr. Ishag Adam Hassan Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Small Component ◽  
Curriculum Review ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Reading Comprehension Skills

This paper is devoted to presenting the methods in English communicating skills for Learners of English in general and the problems specific to University of Bahri. English language major’s graduates then; it discusses the notion of communicative competence, and defines strategic competence. It also briefly deals with the various definitions of communication strategies and taxonomies of conversation strategies. Also, I give brief definition of the word conversation, that is the act of talking together or exchange ideas, opinions, skills, and information. As accustomed, speaking is natural and automatic but communication is an art which must be learned and practiced. Also the aim of this paper is to present you with suitable suggestions about how you can solve problems while reading English? In order to comply with this objective: we considered two variables. The first one is that within our daily practice at the university we have students with different abilities while reading English. Therefore, we need to help them increase the ability in reading comprehension. However, we don’t have enough teachers and needed resources to supply them with the help they need. The second variable is related to the fact that at University there are different centers where the students’ skills can improve and their reading comprehension skills deficiencies could be overcome by getting help from the teachers. This study is small component of a larger curriculum review exercise. The findings of study in general suggest that both students and English language lecturers were in agreement that Sudanese students had a problem in writing and speaking English and due to that the conversational problems are raised.      Finally, the paper concludes by representing the pedagogical implications of conversation strategies.

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