scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of Shields in Conversations of Chinese EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 828
Author(s):  
Hongying Liu
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Engineering Majors ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Fuzzy Language ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Efl Students

As an important part of the fuzzy language, hedges have become a common linguistic phenomenon and frequently applied in daily spoken language. In this study, the authors investigated the shields-using frequency of Chinese EFL learners from the Multi-modal Spoken English Corpus of Chinese Learners-Science & Engineering Majors (MSECCL-SEM). In this study, the classification of Prince et al. (1982) will be adopted. Six shields that are frequently used in spoken English have been searched, namely, “I think”, “in my opinion”, “maybe”, “according to”, “as we (all) know”, “it is said that”. Data are analyzed by the application of Wordsmith 6.0 and SPSS 25.0. Through this study, we attempt to explore the characteristics of shields in spoken English of EFL learners, especially the differences in terms of gender, various language proficiency and two different kinds of shields. Through this research, the authors hope to guide second language teaching and learning by finding out the use of shields in EFL students' daily spoken language and analyzing its potential causes.

scholarly journals Assessing EFL Students’ Language Proficiency in Secondary School Classes in Benin

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Ulrich Orlando Sèna Hindeme ◽  
Katchédé Etienne Iwikotan ◽  
Arlette Joséline Arlette Hounhanou
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Basic Function ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Efl Students

This paper presents a study on assessing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ language proficiency in Benin secondary schools. Assessment and evaluation are indispensable components of English language teaching. Assessing students is crucial to both learners and teachers themselves in the sense that its basic function is to improve learning. However, much awareness has not been raised on the key roles of assessment in Benin secondary schools. This study aims at investigating how effective teachers’ assessment of their learners’ language abilities is in EFL classroom and to explore EFL learners’ attitude towards assessment. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, 56 EFL teachers and 458 lower intermediate and upper EFL learners in the Atlantic region in Benin participated in this study. The field study revealed that many teachers wrongly mistake assessment for test and thus use both terms to mean the same thing. Teachers have not been able to see tests as a way of assessing their teaching methods and upgrading their students’ language skills. Besides, most teachers stated that testing is the only tool they use in assessing their learners’ language proficiency and it is mostly for the purpose of assigning grades at the end of the terms. Students declared that most tests consist of grammar questions. As this study draws attention to the close relationship between assessment and teaching, training workshops have been recommended to guide and train teachers on how to effectively assess their students so that teaching and learning in the EFL classroom meet expected objectives and goals.

scholarly journals The Application of E-learning in English Teaching at Dong Nai Technology University

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 544
Author(s):  
Lien Cam
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Learning Platforms ◽  
The University

Many colleges and universities in Vietnam have employed e-learning platforms in teaching English with the hope to better students’ English proficiency. Recently, e-learning programs such as DNTU-LMS and Canvas have been implemented at Dong Nai Technology University. With their features of flexibility and efficiency, they have been being used as crucial tools for teaching and learning in various faculties in the university especially during the widespread of Covid-19 pandemic. The present study aimed at identifying the views of the EFL learners from Faculty of Foreign Languages on the application of e-learning platform. A group of 100 EFL students was chosen randomly to participate in this study. Data was collected using questionnaire. After analyzing student’s responses, the results proved that the introduction of e-learning was effective. E-learning also stimulates students to learn English and brings them comfort and joy.

scholarly journals Attitudes toward English phonetics learning: a survey on Indonesian EFL learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-217
Author(s):  
Sri Ayu Istiqomah ◽  
Alies Poetri Lintangsari ◽  
Widya Caterine Perdhani
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Phonetic Learning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Attitudes Toward English ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
English Literacy

Indonesian EFL learners face challenges in comprehending English phonemes as it becomes one of the significant predictors of English literacy. Hence, the English Phonetics subject is considered one of the most difficult ones, making the teaching and learning process less effective. Addressing Indonesian EFL learners’ attitudes toward English phonetics teaching is significant to improve phonetics teaching, yet, research on this has not received much attention. This present study was conducted to explore EFL learners’ attitudes toward English phonetic learning. A quantitative approach with survey design was employed involving 112 Indonesian EFL students. The researchers identified students’ attitudes using an adapted questionnaire from Lintunen and Mäkilähde (2015). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was utilized to analyze the data. The results indicate that Indonesian EFL students perform positive attitudes toward English phonetic learning, although they confess that phonetics is challenging. It implies that phonetics learning is potential and promising to support their English fluency; hence, lecturers need to make phonetics Learning more enjoyable, easier and participating in drawing the students' full engagement by considering their preferences and attitude toward phonetics learning.

scholarly journals LOCAL WISDOM VALUES IN EFL ONLINE LEARNING: EMERGING ENVIRONTMENTAL ISSUES

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (02) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Umar Al Faruq A. Hasyim ◽  
Nurul Puspita
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Issue ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Writing Students ◽  
Efl Students

Abstract Local wisdom values mean society awareness about their ability in recognizing the surrounding condition.  In this context, the values refer to the Lampungnese custom in planting crop. Unfortunately, many EFL learners were not familiar with their surroundings.  Furthermore, this research describes the used of environmental issue topic in learning Essay writing. The teaching and learning process was done by EFL students by using online platform. It was suggested during the pandemic situation. However, the aim of this research is describing EFL students’ activities in emerging environmental topic toward their essay. This research was done on second semester of essay writing students. It was about 27 students. In conducting the teaching and learning process the lecturers choose any pictures that deal with the local culture of Lampungnese in planting crop as a topic. Then, the students would be more familiar with the values of the culture and elaborate the values in term of essay writing.

scholarly journals EFL students’ attitudes towards learner autonomy in English vocabulary learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Thao Quoc Tran
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Higher Institution ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Shed Light

Whether EFL learners can use English well or not depends much on vocabulary they possess. Learner autonomy (LA), however, plays a pivotal role in amassing EFL learners’ vocabulary. This study endeavored to explore students’ attitudes towards LA in English vocabulary learning. Two hundred English majors from a Ho Chi Minh City based higher institution, Vietnam got involved in answering the closed-ended questionnaire, and ten students took part in semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that participants were cognitively aware of the importance of LA in English vocabulary learning, but affectively and behaviorally they showed low interest in LA in English vocabulary learning. Such findings may shed light on how to improve the teaching and learning of the English language in general and English vocabulary in particular at the research context and other similar EFL contexts.

scholarly journals Iranian EFL Learners’ Realization of Condolence Speech Act: An Interlanguage Pragmatics Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Maryam Sharif ◽  
Lotfollah Yarmohammadi ◽  
Firooz Sadighi ◽  
Mortaza Yamini ◽  
Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Addition Level

This study was an attempt to compare and contrast the realization patterns of condolence speech act in English and Persian and to examine Iranian EFL learners’ realization of this speech act in English. The study was further interested in investigating whether Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act is associated with their level of L2 proficiency. To this end, a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was administered to 82 undergraduate Iranian EFL students in English. The participants were divided into three levels of language proficiency (elementary level, intermediate level, and advanced level) based on their scores on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). For baseline comparisons, the EFL learners also received the translated version of the same DCT in Persian, and the English DCT was administered to 20 native speakers (NSs) of American English. The data were analyzed based on Elwood’s (2004) coding scheme. The results revealed that English and Persian NSs and Iranian EFL learners had access to the same condolence strategies, yet they differed in the semantic formulas, content, or forms they adopted to formulize their condolence expressions. In addition, level of L2 proficiency was found to be associated with Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act. 

Teaching and Learning to Write

2015 ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
Abraham Panavelil Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Efl Students

Teaching writing is one of the most challenging tasks an EFL teacher has to face, and students find writing a difficult skill to develop. This chapter, however, focuses on Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) as a successful tool for tackling this problem. It defines TBLT and examines its importance for enhancing the writing skills of the EFL students, giving examples of tasks that have been successfully tried out in the classroom. The chapter also examines the use of various strategies for increasing EFL learners' involvement in reading-to-writing activities.

scholarly journals EFL Learners of Pre-Service Teacher Programs’ Knowledge of Collocation and Their Perceptions on Collocation

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-628
Author(s):  
Darmawan Labira ◽  
Yohanes San Salvador L. Gili ◽  
Felisitas Siano
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Average Percentage ◽  
Grammatical Errors ◽  
Teaching Programs ◽  
Lexical Errors ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

This paper was aimed to find out: (1) EFL learners of pre-service teaching program’s knowledge of collocation, and (2) EFL learners of pre-service teaching program’s perception about their knowledge of collocation and on collocation teaching in EFL setting. The data was collected from EFL learners of pre-service teaching programs of IKIP Muhammadiyah Maumere in Maumere East Nusa tenggara, Indonesia. To collect the data, a multiple choice of collocation test that consisted of thirty items was administered and 9 item of questionnaires about their perception toward collocation teaching materials, collocation learning methods, and collocation teaching techniques.  The findings revealed that the average percentage of EFL learners of pre-service teaching program’s collocation errors through statistical analysis using SPSS 25.0 was 51, 50% (an average of 4.85 errors per participants). It was identified that 56.30% grammatical errors (an average of 10.68 errors per participants) and 42.60% lexical errors (an average of 10.54 errors per essay) were found. This implies that the most frequently committed errors were in the grammatical category. The study also revealed that 80% of EFL learners of pre-service teaching program agreed that the role of collocation in teaching and learning vocabulary was very important. 43% of them mostly learn collocations from the course book. They agreed that the most suitable level to learn o r teach collocations are from around elementary. They learn collocation bacause It is important for language proficiency while 30% of them said that techniques do you use in learning collocations was through translating. 40% of them agreed that reading was language skill(s) would be the most effective in learning collocations. The causes their collocational errors were 43% of them agreed that there is interference from Indonesian.

scholarly journals Language Proficiency through Vocabulary Development: A Framework

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boumediène BENRABAH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Language Proficiency Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The global aim of the present research paper is an attempt to reach a threshold level of the learning of a foreign language (English) through the development of vocabulary. Observing the very limited rate of use of English in the Algerian community, English as Foreign Language (EFL) students, actually, need to progress in the mastery of that language by reading and/or listening to texts or messages intensively. To achieve this goal, subsequent procedures should take place by giving the foreign language a rather more appreciable position in the community such as the one held by a second language. To be down-to-earth, a brief survey on the linguistic situation in Algeria is exposed where neat clarification of second-foreign language status in the community is laid out to show that the more a (foreign) language is explicitly exposed in its manifold forms, the more are learners, in that community, likely to acquire it as a second language. However, the assumption of presenting the receptive skills (reading and listening) as the most appropriate means for the growth of foreign language vocabulary is supported by Krashen’s input theory where any input to be understood, should come at EFL learners’ capacity to read/listen and decode easily the meaning. In due course, First year EFL students have been subject to a language proficiency test-‘a pre-test then a post-test’. This typical experimental design is an intervention study which contains two groups: ‘the treatment or experimental’ group which receives the treatment, or which is exposed to some special conditions of intensifying vocabulary learning through a varied, comprehensible input; and a second group of EFL learners- the control group- whose role is to provide a baseline. The findings showed better scores among the experimental group compared to the other group. Actually, the results proved the adequacy of the adopted theory.

scholarly journals The Impact of Digital tools on Motivating young Arab EFL Learners to Improve Their Speaking Skills

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Asmaa Ahmad Mohammad Al.kandari
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Global English ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
The Impact

Kuwait has a very low rate of English proficiency and ranks 65 out of 70 in the global English foreign language proficiency index for schools. A number of factors account for this including the amount of time allocated to spoken English in the curriculum and the lack of students' interest and subject confidence by the time they reach Grade 5. This study uses the Research Onion methodology to explore the potential for using digital tools (Apps and tablets) to increase the motivation and engagement of 5th grade young Arab EFL learners in Kuwait, improve their levels of spoken English and expand their learning space beyond the classroom into the home and everyday activities. It adopts the mixed methods approach and uses sample groups of students, parents and teachers from one school in Kuwait, including an online quantitative survey and semi-structured qualitative oral interviews, to gain insights into the topic. The results showed that the digital tools can have a positive impact on EFL learners speaking proficiency, and the increase of their sense of motivation to communicate but the newness of the idea in the Kuwaiti context raises questions for some parents and teachers in relation to their expectations based on the traditional teaching methods and curriculum.

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