SUPPORTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SCHOOLS: SELF-REPORTED EXPERIENCES OF INTERNATIONAL TEACHING ASSISTANTS WITH COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING TOOLS IN SPAIN

Author(s):  
Janine Knight
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Nasser M. Freihat ◽  
Rana A. Alshowaier

This study aims at investigating Saudi university English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching assistants’ linguistic, pedagogic and technological needs. The sample of the study involves (52) female and (32) male teaching assistants all working in the department of English language and literature at Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) in the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. The study employed a questionnaire to answer the research questions. The results demonstrated that Saudi teaching assistants are in dire need to improve their competences. Based on their responses, technological competence ranks as the most needed skill which indicates that they were willing to implement Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in their classroom. The study also showed that linguistic competence was the second most needed competence while the pedagogic competence is the third most needed skill to be mastered. Saudi teaching assistants need systematic assessment of the linguistic, pedagogic and technological competences as the core criteria for success in the teaching process.


Author(s):  
Khoiriyah Khoiriyah

Listening skills, considered by many to be the most critical language learning skills, have yet to emerge a variety of problems for learners. In order to have an effective listening class, teachers can use one of the many technology-enhanced language learning tools, web-based materials. In this article attempts have been made to make a comprehensive review on the grounded theory of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Second Language Learning (SLA) related to the use of web-based resources in teaching and learning English, especially for listening skills. This article also proposes a framework for conducting CALL evaluation that is worthy for website materials. The result yields a good guideline for teachers to make judgment or decision in choosing the most congruent web-based sources for teaching listening skills. As a result, teachers are able to adapt a proper teaching materials and methodology for listening skills.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Theophilus Adedayo Adedokun

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has been proven by literature to be of immense benefit to the teaching and learning of language at all levels of education. However, it is interesting that university language academics seem to have a negative attitude towards CALL. The aim of this study, therefore, is to design a conceptually sound model of the factors that affect the attitudes of language academics towards Computer Assisted Language Learning Tool for African Indigenous Languages (CALLTAIL) and to examine the relationship between CALL and language attrition, especially for marginalised African languages. Supporting this study are these four theories, namely, the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Hume’s Theory of Beliefs, and the Digital Divide Theory. The study uses content analysis review of suitable literature and a survey of fifty (50) language academics from three (3) public universities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The factors identified to affect the attitudes of language academics are their computer experience, their subjective norms, and their perceived usefulness of CALLTAIL. The findings of this study indicate that subjective norms and perceived usefulness of CALLTAIL are the two factors that affect other variables in this study. The findings also indicate that all the variables in this study are interlinked and interrelated. The study recommends the optimization of language academics’ computer experience, subjective norms, and perceived usefulness of CALLTAIL. The chief contribution of this study is to have investigated the use and adoption of Computer Assisted Language Learning Tools in the context of African indigenous languages and this can be considered as a new research in comparison to the reviewed studies of this research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramia DIRAR SHEHADEH MUSMAR

Integrating scaffolding-learning technologies has been recognized for its potential to create intellectual and engaging classroom interactions. In the United Arab Emirates, having language teachers employ computers as a medium of new pedagogical instrument for teaching second languages generated the idea of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as a medium of an innovative pedagogical instrument for facilitating and scaffolding language learning, with an aspiration that it will lead to improved English language attainment and better assessment results. This study aims at investigating the perspectives of students and teachers on the advantageous and disadvantageous impacts of CALL on learning and teaching English as a second language in one public school in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The results show that CALL has a facilitating role in L2 classroom and that using CALL activities is advantageous in reducing English learning tension, boosting motivation, catering for student diversity, promoting self-directed language learning and scaffolding while learning English. The results additionally report that numerous aspects like time constraints, teachers’ unsatisfactory computer skills, insufficient computer facilities, and inflexible school courses undesirably affect the implementation of CALL in English classrooms. It is recommended that further studies should be undertaken to investigate the actual effect of CALL on students’ language proficiency. 


1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Perlmutter

As a result of a recent law passed in Ohio, a program was designed to improve the oral intelligibility of International Teaching Assistants at Bowling Green State University. To evaluate the efficacy of the training, naive undergraduate students were asked to evaluate the pre- and postrecorded speech samples of the international students, both in terms of intelligibility of the sample and the identification of the topic of the monologue. Analysis showed a significant improvement in the intelligibility ratings between pre- and posttraining samples. Further, the average number of correct subject matter identifications was shown to increase, while the average number of incorrect judgments decreased significantly from pre- to posttraining evaluations.


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