scholarly journals Online self-evaluation: the EFL writing skills in focus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Nasser Ali Al-Mwzaiji ◽  
Ali Abbas Falah Alzubi
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Preparatory Year

Abstract Students need more independent roles to evaluate their learning performance, especially in the absence of teachers’ feedback due to some constraints such as technology and poor experience. This study investigates the potential of online self-evaluation on students’ writing skills in English as a foreign language (EFL). It examines the Preparatory Year (PY) students’ most improved EFL writing areas and perceptions when they use online self-evaluation in writing. In this quasi-experiment, two groups of PY EFL writing program students participated in the study for one semester 2020–2021. A mixed-method design was applied: Self-monitoring checklists, self-evaluation questionnaires, achievement tests, and students’ portfolios. Findings revealed that most of the learners’ mistakes were in punctuation marks, capitalization, informal language, and subject-verb agreement. It was also perceived that learners were doing fine about where and how they should be. The study proved that the students’ self-evaluation and performance in writing correlated significantly; however, the effect size was low. Based on the research findings, it is recommended that training programs on strategy are to be boosted, especially in institutions where learners receive less feedback.

scholarly journals An Insight into Female EFL Learners’ Difficulties and Needs in Writing: The Case of Secondary High Schools in Saudi Arabia

2021 ◽  
pp. 343-359
Author(s):  
Fatima Yousef Alzahrani ◽  
Eatedal Mohammed Alghamdi ◽  
Maysa Mohammad Sadiq Qutob
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Insight Into

Curriculum development has been carried out to improve English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses in Saudi public schools; however, EFL learners still have difficulties in writing. This study examines the difficulties that Saudi female EFL learners face in writing in secondary high schools. The study also aims to identify 12th grade female EFL learners’ needs in improving their writing skills. The research findings might help curriculum designers and EFL teachers to make improvements to a curriculum that meet EFL learners’ needs. The participants were 216 female EFL learners studying in public schools in Jeddah. A questionnaire including closed items on a Likert scale and one open-ended question were used to collect data, which were then analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results illustrate that female EFL learners’ main difficulties in EFL writing are mechanics, use of proper vocabulary, and organization of texts. Additionally, female learners expressed their needs and suggestions for improving their writing skills which are related to the specific difficulties they face. Accordingly, the researchers suggest establishing a well-designed writing program which provides learners with sufficient training in writing skills by increasing the number of hours given to writing.

scholarly journals An Insight into Female EFL Learners’ Difficulties and Needs in Writing: The Case of Secondary High Schools in Saudi Arabia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Yousef Alzahrani ◽  
Eatedal Mohammed Alghamdi ◽  
Maysa Mohammad Sadiq Qutob
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Insight Into

Curriculum development has been carried out to improve English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses in Saudi public schools; however, EFL learners still have difficulties in writing. This study examines the difficulties that Saudi female EFL learners face in writing in secondary high schools. The study also aims to identify 12th grade female EFL learners’ needs in improving their writing skills. The research findings might help curriculum designers and EFL teachers to make improvements to a curriculum that meet EFL learners’ needs. The participants were 216 female EFL learners studying in public schools in Jeddah. A questionnaire including closed items on a Likert scale and one open-ended question were used to collect data, which were then analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results illustrate that female EFL learners’ main difficulties in EFL writing are mechanics, use of proper vocabulary, and organization of texts. Additionally, female learners expressed their needs and suggestions for improving their writing skills which are related to the specific difficulties they face. Accordingly, the researchers suggest establishing a well-designed writing program which provides learners with sufficient training in writing skills by increasing the number of hours given to writing.

scholarly journals Exploring EFL Writing Teaching Through the Integrated Skills Approach: A Case Study in the Saudi Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 800-809
Author(s):  
Waad Aljahdali ◽  
Abdullah Alshakhi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Diary Writing ◽  
Preparatory Year

This study aims to explore the teaching practices of EFL writing that employ the integrated skills approach. It investigates the benefits and challenges associated with teaching writing that uses the integrated skills approach. The study also aims to provide solutions to the challenges faced by the EFL teachers in teaching writing skills. This study uses a qualitative approach by utilizing two instruments: diary writing of event logs in the first phase, and semi-structured interviews in the second phase. The data were collected in a Saudi university at a Preparatory Year Program (PYP). The sample included four general track teachers. After the analysis of the data, the findings revealed that the integrated skills approach can facilitate students’ output; however, students’ lower-level of proficiency, a large number of students in writing classes, and time constraints can negatively affect the teaching practices. Suggestive measures were proposed to eliminate the negative aspects that might hinder the implementation of the integrated skills approach while teaching writing skills. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications and directions for future research have been put forward.

scholarly journals Collab-Analyzer: An environment for conducting web-based collaborative learning activities and analyzing students’ information-searching behaviors

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Hsiang Wu ◽  
Gwo-Jen Hwang ◽  
Fan-Ray Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Information Searching ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Performance

<p class="abstract">Researchers have found that students might get lost or feel frustrated while searching for information on the Internet to deal with complex problems without real-time guidance or supports. To address this issue, a web-based collaborative learning system, Collab-Analyzer, is proposed in this paper. It is not only equipped with a collaborative mechanism for helping group members solve problems on the web, but also facilitates teachers and researchers in analyzing students’ collaborative information-searching behaviors and performance by providing eighteen quantitative indices. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed learning system, a total of 224 university students and 16 teachers participated in an experiment, in which a web-based problem-solving activity for a social studies course was conducted. The experimental results show that the teachers gave positive evaluations of Collab-Analyzer in terms of promoting students' web-based problem-solving ability and information searching skills. Moreover, the students showed high agreement with both the usefulness and ease of use of the system. The research findings also show that high interactive type students have more significant learning performance than moderate and low interactive students. Finally, implications and suggestions for how to accommodate the needs of students after adopting the proposed Collab-Analyzer system are given.</p>

scholarly journals A Proposed Strategic Plan for the Preparatory Year in the Light of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1350-1366
Author(s):  
Dr. Yousry Mohammed Othman ◽  
Dr. Nasser Saud Alrayes
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Strategic Plan ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Vision 2030 ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Preparatory Year

The purpose of this study was to prepare a proposed strategic plan for the preparatory year, which would provide the first-year university program, in the light of Saudi Arabia vision 2030. The researchers in this study used the analytical descriptive curriculum to suit the nature of the subject, and given the nature and objectives of the study, the researchers used the "purposeful sampling", through the identification of a group of experts, selected from the specialists and management experience in academic work, according to the following criteria: (Have experience, leadership in academic work, focus on who has experience in strategic planning and focus on who has experience in academic accreditation and quality). 36 experts responded, taking their views on the applicability of the proposed strategic plan to Saudi Arabia's environment and their development observations. The study provided a practical explanation of how the proposed strategic plan was prepared in accordance with the Pfeiffer model and the SWOT model, which were developed in a number of stages: Define the concept of the strategic plan, Form the strategic planning group on the basis of the preparatory year, Self-evaluation and self-study for the preparatory year in the light of the criteria of the National Centre for Assessment and Academic Accreditation (NCAAA) and environmental analysis of the preparatory year, gap analysis and define prioritization, Building the strategic plan, which includes the following stages: exploring the stakeholders' views on the vision, mission and current objectives of the preparatory year; formulating the vision, mission and strategic goals in the light of the results of the stakeholders survey and the views of the experts, after adjusting the formulation of the vision, mission and strategic goals in the light of the results of the stakeholders survey; alignment the proposed strategic goals of the preparatory year with each of the following: The strategic goals of Imam Abdul Rahman Ben Faisal University “IAU”, the criteria of the NCAAA, the National Qualifications Framework 2020 and the formulation of the final vision, mission and strategic goals in the light of the results of the survey of stakeholders and experts; formulation of sub-goals, blessings and performance indicators for each strategic goals, the implementation plan for apply of the strategy, follow-up and evaluation of the proposed strategic plan for the preparatory year.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Content-Based Instruction on Beginners’ Writing Skills

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 352
Author(s):  
Naoya Shibata
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Senior High School ◽  
Central Japan ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Based Instruction

Content-based instruction (CBI) is “the integration of language teaching aims with content instruction” (Snow, 2014, p. 439). Although CBI has prevailed as one approach to developing a curriculum integrating four language skills in ESL and EFL settings (e.g., Cumming & Lyster, 2016; Donato, 2016), it is rarely implemented in Japanese secondary educational contexts. Furthermore, although the number of studies on EFL writing in secondary contexts is increasing, research on EFL essay writing in such settings has seldom been conducted in Japan. Therefore, based on data gathered from surveys and essay assignments, this study explored the effects of CBI on the writing of 105 beginner learners at a private senior high school in central Japan for 9 months. The research findings showed that the participants improved their writing abilities through CBI, regarding the number of tokens used and the increase of supporting sentences. 内容中心教授法は内容指導と言語教育の統合である（Snow, 2014, p. 439）。第2外国語、外国語教育の環境において、同教授法は4技能を統合する外国語教育カリキュラムとして普及してきているが（例：Cumming & Lyster, 2016; Donato, 2016）、日本の中等教育現場ではあまり実施されていない。加えて、中等教育現場での外国語ライティングの研究は増加してきているが、そのような環境においてのエッセイライティングの研究は日本ではほとんど行われていない。従って、本研究では，私学高等学校に在籍する105名の初学者を対象に、9カ月間アンケートとエッセイ課題を通して、内容中心教授法のライティング能力に対しての効果を検証した。結果として、内容中心教授法を通して，学習者たちは使用語数及び補足文の増加においてライティング能力を向上させた。

scholarly journals Holistic vs. Analytic Scoring between Expository and Narrative Genres: Does the Assessment Type Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-220
Author(s):  
Sahail M. Asassfeh
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Holistic Scoring ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Analytic Scoring ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Writing Instructors

  The unprecedented emphasis on EFL students' development of their writing skills has invited researchers and EFL instructors to look for the most effective methods of teaching writing and assessing it. Within this context, two main dominant assessment types have been used by EFL writing instructors: holistic and analytic scoring with ambiguous research findings about the use of each. Moreover, ambiguity has also been surrounding variability in raters' scoring across genre types. This study aims at uncovering the difference between using the two scoring schemes across two genres in EFL writing: expository and narrative. Two texts each representing a genre type from 10th grade EFL writers' compositions were presented to a sample of 90 in-service EFL teachers for holistic scoring. Two months later, the same texts were presented to the same teachers for analytic scoring in order to compare between the grades assigned in each round for arriving at results. Results suggest significant differences between the scores obtained according to the grading method. Also, narrative essays received higher scores in both assessment types. These results are discussed, and recommendations are derived.

Cognitive Regulation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale H. Schunk ◽  
Maria K. DiBenedetto
Keyword(s):  
Intervention Studies ◽  
Task Engagement ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Cognitive Regulation ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Learning With Technology

Cognitive regulation refers to the self-directed regulation of cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, affects) toward the attainment of goals. Cognitive regulation can occur before individuals engage in tasks, while they are working on them, and during pauses or when tasks are completed where individuals reflect on their performances. Researchers have addressed which cognitive regulation processes are used during various phases of task engagement, how these processes differ among individuals due to ability and achievement levels and due to development, how cognitive regulation processes operate during task engagement, and which interventions can effectively help persons become better cognitive regulators. The implications of the research findings are that teachers and others can help learners improve their cognitive regulation skills. Some important processes are goal setting, strategy use and adaptation, monitoring of cognition and performance, motivation (e.g., self-efficacy), and self-evaluation. Effective interventions expose students to models displaying these skills and provide for practice with feedback. There are six limitations of the present research that should be addressed. This can be accomplished by conducting more intervention studies, examining fine-grained changes in cognitive regulation, conducting research in non-traditional contexts, integrating the educational and developmental literatures, exploring cognitive regulation across cultures, and investigating cognitive regulation during learning with technology.

scholarly journals Using Digital Storytelling as a Strategy for Enhancing EFL Writing Skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (13) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Luz Mercedes Castillo-Cuesta ◽  
Ana Quinonez-Beltran ◽  
Paola Cabrera-Solano ◽  
Cesar Ochoa-Cueva ◽  
Paul Gonzalez-Torres
Keyword(s):  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Private University ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
English Major ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Distance Courses ◽  
The Impact

The present study is aimed at analyzing the impact of digital sto-rytelling on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pre-service teachers’ writing skills. The participants were 101 students, who were enrolled in four distance courses of the English Major at a private university in Ecuador. Their ages ranged between 19 and 22 years old. They were divided into one control (49) and one experimental (52) group since this study used a quasi-experimental approach combined with a mixed-method design. The instruments included a pre-question-naire, a pre-test, a post-questionnaire, and a post-test. The main findings show that there was a significant improvement in students’ writing skills, particularly in aspects related to grammar and vocabulary. In addition, digital storytelling us-ing Storybird was perceived as a useful strategy to develop the participants’ EFL writing skills since they were more engaged in activities that allowed them to demonstrate their knowledge when designing narrative projects.

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