scholarly journals Investigating English Academic Writing Problems Encountered by Arab International University Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Sarah Al-Mukdad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
International University ◽  
The Difference ◽  
English Academic Writing

This study is in the area of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It aimed to investigate the academic writing problems encountered by students at Arab International University (AIU) who are taking the Academic Writing module (AWR). The purpose of the study is to investigate this problem from the perspective of students in order to suggest possible treatments to deal with it. The data was collected through distributing a questionnaire to 50 students from different majors at AIU. Upon analyzing and discussing the obtained data, results suggest that students tend to perceive all aspects of academic writing to be difficult. One reason is that they poorly recognize the difference between academic and general English writing due to the lack of background knowledge about writing academically. Another prime reason is attributed to having problems in different linguistic elements even at this supposedly high proficiency level. The study concludes with suggesting a number of ways to address this issue.

scholarly journals NEGATIVE TRANSFER OF INDONESIAN COLLOCATIONS INTO ENGLISH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mashadi Said
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Negative Transfer ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Lexical Collocations ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Direct Teaching

One of the most challenging problems for EFL students is to be able to express themselves not just grammatically but also acceptably and naturally in English in appropriate contexts.  The ability to produce acceptable and natural expressions in English is closely related to the EFL students’ competence in collocation—which words go together in normal usage. The present study provides an empirical analysis on negative transfer made by Indonesian EFL students in lexical collocation and recommends practical ways to help students improve their competence in collocation.  Data for the study was collected from essays written by 40 EFL university students majoring in English in Indonesia whose native language is Indonesian. The students were asked to write a two- to three-page essay on an assigned topic. Of 445 lexical collocation errors found in the English writing, 321 (72%) were negative transfers of Indonesian lexical collocations into English. The findings suggest the necessity of direct teaching of collocations, the use of The Collins WordbanksOnline, and the need to design bilingual collocation dictionaries.<br />Keywords: Negative Transfer, Lexical Collocation, Indonesian Collocation, Acceptable Collocation<br /><br />

The Role of Transfer in the Use of English Articles by Moroccan Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Naima Trimasse
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Article Usage ◽  
English Articles ◽  
Made In

<p class="1"><span lang="EN-US">This study investigates the acquisition of the English article system by Moroccan EFL learners. More specifically, the focus is on transfer and the extent to which it accounts for errors in the use of these articles by Moroccan university students.  The study purports to investigate: 1- the effect of proficiency level on transfer errors by Moroccan learners in the use of articles, 2- the difference between transfer errors made in comprehension and in production in using articles and 3- the difference in transfer errors according to the three English articles. In order to answer the aforementioned questions, data was collected from university students (40 in first year and 40 in third year) through their performance on a grammaticality judgment test and an essay. The findings of the study show that: 1- proficiency level has an effect on transfer errors made in article usage. This effect is clear in comprehension but not in production, 2- subjects made more transfer errors in comprehension than in production, 3- the effect of transfer differs according to the three English articles. The findings of the study have some important implications for the methodology of teaching articles.</span></p>

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The Impact

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

scholarly journals INNOVATIVE BLENDED LEARNING METHODOLOGY IN TEACHING IT STUDENTS ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmyla Lazorenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Research Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Effective Models

The purpose of this article is to analyze the history of the methodology and the concept of Blended Learning, give examples, systematize, classify and identify the most effective models of blended learning in teaching English to IT students based on the study of their research and use in higher education all over the world. The article proves the necessity of finding innovative technologies for the effective teaching of a professionally oriented foreign language in the field of Information Technologies. Methodical literature, speeches, reports and reports at modern educational conferences, forums are analyzed. The article shows the advantages and disadvantages of using these models, offers examples of research technology Blended Learning. The difference between traditional, distance and blended learning is characterized and shown. Examples are given and models of blended learning are shown schematically. The specifics of the organization of work with one of the resources in the context of blended learning are considered.

scholarly journals Contrastive Analysis of British and American English in Relation To Teaching English as a Foreign Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 2367-2372
Author(s):  
Novalina Sembiring
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Finding ◽  
American English ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
British English ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Descriptive Method

This research was a descriptive research which was aimed at finding out the similarities, dissimilarities and the contributions of the contrastive analysis on teaching English as a foreign language. The data of this research were collected through library and internet sources. The researchers use comparative descriptive method to analyse the data. The obtained results was the comparison of American and British English in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, pronunciation and the contributions of them in teaching English as a foreign language. The research finding shows that British and American English are very similar in many aspects. Even though British and American English are mostly similar, they also have some differences. The difference of British and American English can be found in terms of vocabulary, grammar, spelling and pronunciation. Among them, vocabulary is the largest one. It is suggested that lecturers and teachers aware of the similarities and differences between British and American English in teaching English as a foreign language so that it will lead to the successful teaching of English including its varieties.

scholarly journals The Use of Transition Signals in University Students’ Community Service Report

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Ni Putu Cahyani Putri Utami ◽  
Made Wahyu Mahendra
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Study Program ◽  
English Academic Writing

Transition signals are the essential elements to achieve a well-structured text. The ideas in the text need to connect to each other. It will be difficult for the reader to understand the sequence if the ideas are simply just exposed by the writer without being related to each other. Students’ competency and ability in English academic writing overviewed from their competence in constructing sentences. Therefore, this research aimed to find out the use of transition signals and their accuracy in students’ community service report. The research used a descriptive quantitative method. The data were taken from students’ community service report written by the seventh semester English literature students of Foreign Languages Study Program of Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar. The finding of this research showed that the total number of transition signals used by the students in their community service report were 303 and classified into eight types of transition signals. Transition signals to introduce sequence and logically order ideas was mostly used and transition signals to emphasize ideas was least used by the students. From the whole types of transition signals, the average usage accuracy was above 60%.

scholarly journals Realizing Learners’ Writing Problem from the Beginning: A Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Made Wahyu Mahendra
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Prospective Studies ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Ideal Situation ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Oral Activity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Common Problems

Abstract The importance of writing has become a primary concern in teaching English as a foreign language. The skill of writing enables learners to generate ideas into certain organisation and awareness once the process of writing is undertaken. From writing, learners are also expected to be able to construct and use the language more accurately because they have enough time to think compared to have an oral activity. However, such an ideal situation can hardly be manifested due to particular problems faced by learners. This present study aims at investigating the struggling points of writing construction done by students. There were fourteen students who were purposefully selected as the subject of this study. In order to gather the supporting data, the researcher employs document study and direct observation. This study is expected to give contribution to help teachers confirming common problems faced by students during learning writing. Nevertheless, it also contributes to other prospective studies which are on the same interest with this present one. Keywords : Assessing Writing, Writing Problems, Writing Construction 

scholarly journals "Excuse my Misunderstanding": Using Intercultural Approach to teach English as a Foreign Language in France

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-709
Author(s):  
Stella Anne Achieng
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Classroom Participation ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
English Program

In France, the intercultural approach has been largely associated with teaching French as a Foreign language due to the multicultural and multilingual nature of the classes. There is very little research on the use of such an approach in teaching English as a Foreign language. This is due to the fact that the majority, if not all the students,  share a similar culture and common linguistic codes.  The intercultural experience, in that case, is encountered through the English program as presented by the teacher, who in most cases is also French. This paper examines the use of the intercultural approach in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to French learners (middle school /university students) by a foreign teacher and the consideration of social representations (stereotypes) as a strategy to develop classroom participation in verbal communication. It discusses theoretical understanding of the intercultural approach and how this approach could be used in practice by drawing examples from the teacher and the learners' experiences. Data was collected through participatory observations and questioning. The research findings will show that using social representations as a strategy in intercultural approach can be instrumental to the development of verbal communication.

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