scholarly journals Linguistic Meaning Versus Pragmatic Meaning

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (26) ◽  
pp. 248
Author(s):  
Mohammad Awwad
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Cooperative Principle ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Critical Gap ◽  
Oral Skills

A critical gap between linguistic specifications and context-relevantinterpretation has existed ever since linguists sought to investigate meaning.As a matter of fact, English language has gained an unprecedentedmomentum over the last decades, and the ultimate aim of English languageteaching has revolved around fostering the students’ ability to communicateproficiently in English. In this realm, much emphasis was given on thedevelopment of learners’ oral skills; however, those efforts were watereddown on the progression of linguistic competence on the expense ofcommunicative competence. In an attempt to bridge this gap, this studyadopted Grice’s Cooperative Principle (1975) and embodied examples onhow participants breach and neglect maxims upon which the Cooperativeprinciple rests. For this aim, the study was carried on 100 English majorstudents enrolled in the TEFL class at the Lebanese University (fifth branch);the investigation was carried over a period of four months in spring 2015-2016. The results revealed that despite the subjects’ adequate linguisticproficiency in English, EFL learners still fall behind attaining pragmaticcompetence. The study endorses recommendations for EFL learners,teachers, and curriculum designers.

scholarly journals A Promoting EFL Learners’ Linguistic Competence via Videogame Play-Trace Effects: An Empirical Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-72
Author(s):  
Rozhgar Jalal Khidhir ◽  
Hussein Ali Wali
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
The University ◽  
Method Approach

The current study is an experimental digital game-based (DGBL) endeavor which tackles potential educational issues beyond the frequent use of games, language learning potentials in particular. It has used a mixed method approach, i.e., quantitative and qualitative. The study aims at exploring the practical effects of videogame play, Trace Effect, on improving the players’ linguistic competence. It is hypothesized that (playing videogame cannot create any difference of performance between groups of subject matters for improving English language learning. The study has concluded the followings; overall inferential statistics confirmed that playing videogame can effectively get into the improvement process of teaching English as a foreign language to the university students. On the other hand, playing the videogame, Trace Effects, has formed the solely major cause of improvement and learning in the following domains, creating friendly fascinating atmosphere, upgrading technological skills, increasing motivation towards learning, making use of homework as a form of external extensive activity, forming semi-independent learning, and practicing and virtual reality of the second/foreign language’s culture.

Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-56
Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khansir ◽  
Afsaneh Salehabadi
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Knowledge Of Language

As the topic suggests, the research paper presents Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners. Error analysis always tries to resolve language learners’ problems in acquiring second or foreign language setting. Learning to English pronunciation is perhaps as important as learning listening skill, speaking, and spelling. Errors in English pronunciation create several problems for English language learners in their works. In other words, most of the English language errors of pronunciation are due to the lack of knowledge of language learners. However, all the students in our sample are of age group (16-25) at Bushehr language institute and they are all Iranian nationals. In addition, all of them were female learners. An English pronunciation (consonant) test was used to get information about the knowledge of the learners in English pronunciation. Findings of this article indicated that the first and second hypotheses of this article were accepted, but the third hypothesis was rejected. However, the findings of this paper showed that the Iranian EFL students have problem to pronounce English sounds correctly.

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

Machine Translation for EFL

Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 228-235
Author(s):  
Paul J. Moore ◽  
Phil Murphy ◽  
Luann Pascucci ◽  
Scott Sustenance
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
English Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
English Language Institute ◽  
Changing Role

This paper reports on an ongoing study into the affordances of free online machine translation for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) at the tertiary level in Japan. The researchers are currently collecting data from a questionnaire, task performance, and interviews with 10-15 EFL learners in an English Language Institute in a university in Japan. The paper provides some background on the changing role of translation in language learning theory and pedagogy, before focusing literature related to technical developments in machine translation technology, and its application to foreign language learning. An overview of the research methodology is provided, along with some insights into potential findings. Findings will be presented in subsequent publications.

scholarly journals Investigating Indonesian EFL learners’ knowledge and use of English causative constructions

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wijaya ◽  
Evelyn Winstin
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Improve Instruction ◽  
Causative Construction

Abstract This paper explored Indonesian EFL learners’ explicit knowledge, processing, and use of English periphrastic causative constructions make, have, and get. 20 English L1 speakers and 20 Indonesian intermediate level EFL learners majoring in English Language Education at an Indonesian university took part in this study. Data were collected through a cloze task, a sentence completion task, an interpretation task, and a set of open-ended questions asking learners to provide descriptions about their knowledge of the constructions. Results showed that learners did not always use the first noun strategy to identify the agent in a passive causative construction. Also, their suppliances of the causative verbs in most items did not significantly differ from L1 speakers. However, the syntactic patterns were mostly non-target-like. They demonstrated insufficient explicit knowledge that could enable them to verbalize the formal and functional aspects underlying the constructions. Pedagogical implications along with suggestions to improve instruction are discussed.

Examining the Use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies among EFL Learners in Baghlan University of Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
New Words ◽  
Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Vocabulary learning is one of the problems in language learning skills. Tackling such problems is to provide useful and effective strategies for enhancing students’ VLSs. Therefore, this study aims to survey vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) utilized among English as a Foreign Language learners (EFL) in Baghlan University of Afghanistan, and to study the high and least frequently used VLSs that contributes to the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. This study utilizes a descriptive quantitative research method with 67 EFL learners who participated in the survey questionnaire adopted from Oxford (1990) taxonomy of VLS from different faculties of Baghlan University. The findings indicated that EFL learners preferably utilize VLSs at a medium level, and the highly used vocabulary learning strategies are the social strategies through which they ask the native speakers, teachers, and classmates for the meanings of new words in English language conversation. Determination, cognitive, and memory strategies are respectively followed by the learners. Whereas, metacognitive strategies are the least used strategies among EFL learners, the reason is that they only focus on the materials related to examination; explore anything about the new words for learning, and rarely think of their improvement in vocabulary learning.

scholarly journals A Review of Studies on Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension for ESL/EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Aziza M. Ali ◽  
Abu Bakar Razali
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Written Information ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Correct Reading ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Metacognitive Reading Strategies

Being able to read well is important for English language learners. Through the process of reading, the learner becomes an active participant in producing an interaction with the writer of the text through predicting, analyzing, summarizing and using other types of reading strategies. However, building such a connection between the reader and the written information of the text is complex and for English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) students, it can be quite difficult for them to apply different types of reading strategies. This article provides a review of literature on 27 studies on the teaching of reading strategies (particularly cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies) for ESL/EFL learners, which reveals that ESL/EFL teachers need to keep updating their teaching methods to meet the ESL/EFL students’ needs, particularly in the use of correct reading strategies. The authors also highlight some of the main issues that prevent ESL/EFL students from improving and developing their reading comprehension. Furthermore, the authors discuss and conclude the article by suggesting to ESL/EFL teachers some teaching strategies to be applied in the reading lesson to improve the ESL/EFL students’ use of reading strategies.

scholarly journals Lexical and semantic errors in the English language teaching in homogenious groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-149
Author(s):  
G. Akhmetova ◽  
◽  
A. Bizhkenova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Homogeneous Groups ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Lexical Competence ◽  
Incorrect Usage

The present research paper discusses the issues of identifying common lexical and semantic mistakes in Kazakh pre-intermediate EFL learners studying in homogeneous groups at university. Words are viewed as powerful tools and when used correctly, words may evoke different feelings and emotions and cause various actions. It’s important to learn how to spot difficult words, correct them timely, and master lexical competence teaching to use the words correctly. The data of the study were collected by learner’s EFL teacher from their final essays. Thirty-one essays were used as the instrument of the study to obtain real language from the participants. The authors of the study hope that the results of the conducted research would contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of lexical and semantic errors in English language teaching which will help teachers to elaborate the differentiated tasks and ways of explaining new vocabulary preventing students’ misunderstanding. Furthermore, the results of the presented research can serve as guidance and be used in compiling EFL textbooks for Kazakhstani students. As a result, researchers managed to classify lexical and semantic errors in English language teaching, identified frequent errors, and described their causes. The findings of the research illustrate that the participants of the study make errors of word choice and incorrect collocations the most. Moreover, incorrect usage of the preposition and literal translation from L1 are included in the frequent mistakes

scholarly journals The Relationship between Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Knowledge of Thai EFL Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Sarunya Tarat
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Identification Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Unknown Words ◽  
The Relationship

This study focuses on the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge of English among Thai EFL university students. All participants are taking English language as their major field in the universities situated at the lower northern region of Thailand. The morphological awareness identification test was employed to identify the linkage between morphological awareness and vocabulary gain Thai EFL learners. The test was divided into 2 parts: self-checking and morpheme identification. Fifty English vocabularies in intermediate and upper-intermediate level were used in the test in which the participants were requested to check whether they have seen the vocabularies in the test and also asked to break those vocabularies into morphemic units. The results showed that the participants possessed an adequate level of morphological awareness to break words into morphemes correctly even though they were unknown words of the participants. Additionally, the findings also revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female in acquiring morphological awareness of English and gaining English vocabularies.

scholarly journals Effect of Teaching English Literature on EFL Learners' Output

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelraziq A bdelghani Mahil Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Empirical Method ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Academic Year

This study aimed at investigating the effect of teaching English Literature on the EFL Learners' output. This study adopted a quasi-empirical method. The sample of the study consisted of (100) English teachers. The population of the study was all English teachers in Khartoum locality in the first period in the academic year 2017 / 2018. A questionnaire was constructed to the teachers to collect data. The study used the SPSS program to analyze the data. The results revealed statistically significant differences in students 'output because the study participants strongly agreed to (14) items in the questionnaire, which their  average ranged from (4.20 to 5.00) and that means that teaching English Literature is essential and necessary for EFL Learners because its effects on their output in English language. In the light of the study findings the researcher recommended that Curricula designers, educators, and experts should adopt literature-based syllabuses or include at least literature in the syllabuses.

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