scholarly journals TEACHING OCCUPATIONAL SPEAKING SKILLS TO WORKERS OF A HERITAGE MUSEUM

Author(s):  
Martha Thindle Karunakar

This paper describes a study program of teaching the English language for a specific purpose, to workers employed in a Heritage Museum in South India. The need for the program arose from the requests of the management as the workers were involved in showcasing the museum, its activities and artifacts, largely using the English language to visitors and tourists from varied language-speaking states within India and abroad. This paper examines the effectiveness of ‘show and tell’ and related activities at facilitating a group of skilled artisans and workers’ production of English sentence structures. Seven learners employed in the heritage museum carried out monologue and dialogue activities designed to enhance speaking skills, particularly related to their profession. Pre- and post-intervention test activities were recorded and analyzed to examine if ‘show and tell’ and related activities facilitated the learners' speaking skills. Activities were video-recorded and transcribed to determine the fluency of the learners. Fluency was interpreted in terms of the number of pauses, false starts, repetitions that occurred within the speech. The results showed that the learners produced more fluent sentences on the post-intervention activity. Implications of the use of monologue and dialogue activities using the situated learning approach on fluency are discussed.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Fernandes Arung ◽  
Zainal Rafli ◽  
Ratna Dewanti

Formal educational practitioners tend to neglect the students’ sense of liking; we labled as Preferent learning, in order to acquire certain skill in the learning foreign language, especially speaking skills. In general, so far, issues of formal learning with the focus on bounded academic rules, cognition, and motivation have been used as the main basis for the learning foreign language and even learning in general. In fact, the individual learning, language community, social change, and sopihisticated technology need to be considered in how students acquire the skills they want based on their preferences. By investigating how the University students in Kolaka learned and improved their English speaking skills, we applied a Grounded study that involved 10 informants who were the students and alumni of the English Language Education Study Program of the University X in Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. All data were collected 12 times in 3 stages then were analyzed using three steps of Strauss and Corbin's analysis that applied theoretical sampling and constant comparison in generating the substantive theory. The findings revealed that the informants acquired the English speaking skills because of a sense of liking or preference toward any topic to learn. Further, they prefer to learn in an unpredictable ways without any rules and an informal self-evaluation were applied as a way in sustaining the skills.


Author(s):  
J. Anhar Rabi Hamsah Tis’ah Muhammad Saleh Taher

Abstract This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the use of class discussion learning models by using the Cisco Webex application in improving students’ speaking skills and learning outcomes at the University of Muhammadiyah Tangerang. The research method was used a quasi-experimental research method with the research samples were students who took the speaking subject in the English Study Program. The research design used pretest and posttest control group design. A different test was conducted to measure the differences in the effectiveness of using learning media of Cisco Webex application and using of other applications learning media based on learning outcomes. It can be concluded that the level of effectiveness of class discussion method using of Cisco Webex application learning media in the experiment class is higher than the control class using other applications learning media 82.25 > 80.52.


Author(s):  
Dentik Karyaningsih ◽  
Puji Siswanto

Lecture courses in the English Language Education Study Program of STKIP Setiabudhi Rangkasbitung are still conducted in face-to-face class, so the students who do not attend lectures cannot know the pronunciation material at that time, because the Pronunciation course is a practical course in the English pronunciation system. The E-Learning Pronunciation is built so that lectures can be carried out anywhere and anytime without reducing the quality of the teaching and learning process. Therefore, the students who are left behind can continue to follow the Pronunciation course material, as well as habituating students in utilizing communication and information technology. E-Learning Pronunciation is important to be built to improve the ability of students’ pronunciation when doing distance learning, so that students are clearer and more firm in understanding Pronunciation so that there are no errors in English pronunciation. Participants in this study were first semester students of English education study programs. This study uses an experimental research design with the Prototype System development method and system of testing uses Black box testing.


Author(s):  
Shaukat Ali ◽  
Saddam Hussain ◽  
Iftikhar Ali

This study exploits John Milton's poems "On His Blindness, and "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint" for teaching speaking skills to ESL learners. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design consisting of a treatment group (TG) and a comparison group (CG). CG was taught through conventional language text whereas TG was treated with the aforementioned poems. The main focus of the study was to observe the language learning behavior of the students of both TG and CG during language learning activities. The study therefore employed observation field notes beside the speaking type pretest and posttest as tools of data collection. The thematic analysis of the observation field notes indicated that the students of TG were confident, motivated, involved in, and excited about the language learning activities. On the contrary, the students of the CG were found to be hesitant, passive, and demotivated during the language learning venture. Consequently, the students of TG performed significantly better than that of CG on the posttest. The study recommends that poetry should be utilized for teaching the English language in general and speaking skills in particular.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nihta V. F. Liando ◽  
Raesita Lumettu

This research aims at finding out students’ personal initiative towards their achievement in speaking English. This research was conducted in an English department at a university in North Sulawesi Indonesia. The data were obtained from the sixth semester students in English Language and Literature study program of academic year 2015/2016 consisting of 21 students. In obtaining the data about students’ personal initiative, a questionnaire was distributed, and for the speaking performance, the data were obtained from students’ scores in Public Speaking subject. To find out the relation between these two variables, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formula was used. The result of this research shows that there is a correlation between students’ personal initiative towards their speaking performance with the value of  = (0.52) categorized as a moderate correlation. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that personal initiative of students was important to be considered as one of several determination factors for students’ achievement in English speaking skill. It is suggested that students encourage themselves for taking initiative to speak, and for the teacher to give the students correction and suggestion to help them develop themselves.


1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-315
Author(s):  
Robert E. Frykenberg

Every schoolboy and schoolgirl in India, figuratively speaking, is taught the Myth of Macaulay's Minute. According to this myth, attitudes of lofty condescension towards India's peoples and their inferior cultures, combined with practical needs for a cheap labour force to supply the manpower requirements of an enormous bureaucratic machine, prompted alien rulers to impose an English language educational system upon the subcontinent and, thereby, to neglect and stifle the natural growth of indigenous educational institutions. Moreover, in its more extreme forms, this myth assumes that these rulers were also either racially arrogant or wilfully ignorant, or both. Finally, this myth assumes that the disastrous consequences of this “colonialist” fiat were a major factor inhibiting the progress and well-being of a large proportion of India's peoples.


Author(s):  
Jafar Asgari Arani

Digital media has been used to enhance language learning for decades. Since the aim of language learning is to develop communicative proficiency, using communication devices and channels that already exist in the classroom is a sensible way of exploiting opportunities for language practice. The ‘anywhere, anytime’ accessibility to educational contents that mobile SMSs, sometimes freely, offer users, means that mobile learning can extend the opportunities for study outside of the classroom. Given the importance of writing, especially for academic purposes in university, the study set a dual goal: firstly, to analyze the outcome of applying supplementary SMS activity to teach English syntax necessary to paraphrase sentences and secondly, to clarify the medical students' ideas about it. A quasi-experimental, pre-test and post-test, research design was utilized to investigate the hypotheses of this study. Two groups (each 40-second year students of medicine) were randomly assigned to be the experimental and the conventional group. Both groups were taught the same syllabus materials designed for English for Medical Purposes (EMP) II course in a 17-week semester in Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The former received the SMS –based supplementary contents in a scheduled pattern of delivery two times a week to strengthen their learning while the latter only was taught in a face to face setting. An open questionnaire was used to examine students feedback towards their attitudes. The validity of the questionnaire was examined by giving to a number of professors of English language. The data were also collected and analyzed through an Attitude/ Motivation questionnaire consisting of 12 Likert-scale items, pretest& posttest, paired-samples t-tests, and one way ANOWA. The pretest and posttest data paired t-test likert-scale items analyzed results showed that differences between the experimental and control groups were statistically significant. It was found that the effect of practicing SMS on the students' English syntax learning was positive. According to the findings, students receiving the supplementary English syntax SMSs noticeably improved their sentence paraphrasing performance and acquired higher grades during the post-test than those in conventional group. Qualitative data from interviews and questionnaires indicate that students hold positive attitudes towards receiving paraphrase syntactic points via SMS. Majority of students in this pilot project considered the educational program offered to be efficient, useful and beneficial. The data gathered revealed mobile syntactic supplementary SMSs can be integrated into EMP II course to enable students to develop better English sentence paraphrasing skills. Mobile SMS; Sentence Paraphrasing; Educational Tool; English for Medical Purposes


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Muhammad Riaz Khan ◽  
Shehla Riaz Khan ◽  
Saeed Ahmad

The graduates of Jazan University (Saudi Arabia), like anywhere else in EFL or ESL settings, require effective oral communication skills in English language for a highly competitive and expanding market economy of the country, and the worldwide too. The study was taken to evaluate the students’ perceptions about the need of speaking skills and the urgency to participate in language enhancement activities keeping in view the generally unsatisfactory position of the Saudi students in speaking English language. The sample population for this research was taken from three colleges, i.e. the first grade students from Engineering, Business and Computer Science of this university. A survey method technique was adopted in which data was obtained using a structured questionnaire about students’ responses on multiple items indicating their understanding of the importance of speaking skills, their existing level of oral communication and the need to participate in the extra coaching programs offered by the university. The quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS 17. The data shows the participants’ understanding of the importance of communication skills for social needs, personality development, attaining and survival in the job market, and their needs for attending extra language training sessions other than their normal routine courses.


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