scholarly journals Iraqi Kurd EFL Learners’ Uses of Conjunctive Adverbials in Essays

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-237
Author(s):  
Awder Raza Aziz ◽  
Rebaz Bahadeen Mohammed Nuri
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus

The quality of any academic essay highly depends on cohesion and coherence since they affect the overall quality and the tone of the writing to a great extent. Conjunctive adverbials are among the types of devices which logically help linking sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into essays. Conjunctive Adverbials ultimately affect the cohesion and coherence of any piece of writing. This paper investigates conjunctive adverbials in essays written by Iraqi Kurd EFL learners at the undergraduate level. It explicitly attempts to discover what specific conjunctive adverbials types are overused, underused, or misused and in what positions in sentences. A learner corpus of 50 complete essays was compiled for this study. The findings showed that the participants tended to use more sequential and additive conjunctive adverbials than adversative and causals. Additionally, the results demonstrated that the learners relied heavily on a limited number of conjunctive adverbials, mainly in the initial position. However, the conjunctive adverbial category affects its place in the sentence.

scholarly journals Iraqi Kurd EFL Learners’ Uses of Conjunctive Adverbials in Essays

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awder Raza Aziz ◽  
Rebaz Bahadeen Mohammed Nuri
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus

The quality of any academic essay highly depends on cohesion and coherence since they affect the overall quality and the tone of the writing to a great extent. Conjunctive adverbials are among the types of devices which logically help linking sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into essays. Conjunctive Adverbials ultimately affect the cohesion and coherence of any piece of writing. This paper investigates conjunctive adverbials in essays written by Iraqi Kurd EFL learners at the undergraduate level. It explicitly attempts to discover what specific conjunctive adverbials types are overused, underused, or misused and in what positions in sentences. A learner corpus of 50 complete essays was compiled for this study. The findings showed that the participants tended to use more sequential and additive conjunctive adverbials than adversative and causals. Additionally, the results demonstrated that the learners relied heavily on a limited number of conjunctive adverbials, mainly in the initial position. However, the conjunctive adverbial category affects its place in the sentence.

Linking or delinking of ideas?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Navarro Gil ◽  
Helena Roquet Pugès
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
American University ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

Abstract This paper explores the use of adversative Linking Adverbials (LAs) in the academic writing of advanced English Foreign Language (EFL) learners with different linguistic backgrounds. The learner corpus used in this study consists of 50 argumentative texts, which are contrasted with a native corpus: the American university students’ corpus (LOCNESS). Liu’s (2008) comprehensive list of adversative LAs has been used for the analysis. Findings reveal that both non-native (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS) use similar types of adversative LAs, but NNS place them regularly in sentence- and sometimes in paragraph- initial position, which often results in punctuation issues and misuse. A total of 9 LAs were found to be overused (e.g., nevertheless) and underused (e.g., actually) by NNS. The analysis performed according to L1 has yielded unexpected results in terms of preference, frequency, and placement of adversative LAs. The so-called ‘teaching effect’ is considered one of the main factors influencing the learners’ choices.

Quality of learning experience, student satisfaction and perceived overall experience in the COVID-19 context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Venugopal Prabhakar Gantasala ◽  
Swapna Bhargavi Gantasala ◽  
Tareq Na'el Al Tawil ◽  
Prerana Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medical Programs

PurposeThe intention for this study was to explore any relationship that might exist between quality of learning experience (QLE), the second construct student satisfaction (SS) and the third construct perceived overall experience (POE) among undergraduate students within the higher education context. This study also attempts to explain the path direction between QLE, SS and POE.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers utilized structural equation modeling to analyze the variables considered for this study – QLE, SS and POE and for hypotheses testing. Respondents for this study were medical students' coordinators of the undergraduate level of medical colleges in the 28 states of India. Data collected for the study were possible by utilizing a questionnaire that was emailed to these student coordinators. The emailing effort returned 198 (n) filled questionnaires (complete) representing 198 institutions offering undergraduate-level medical programs out of a total of 542 institutions that offer undergraduate medical programs.FindingsFindings from this study confirm the relationship between QLE with SS, and PLE. Interestingly, the findings established a significant relationship between SS and POE.Practical implicationsDecision-makers and administrators of higher education institutions (HEIs) can utilize the findings from this study to focus on strengthening important elements of QLE in ways that positively impact SS and POE of students taking online courses and program offerings. The study reiterates the importance of course content, course structure, lecture-delivery quality, instructor mentoring and student-instructor interactions on SS and POE. The role of SS in reinforcing confirmation, perceived usefulness, perceived openness of the online courses and the perceived reputation was established. This relationship is key to administrators while they focus on improving SS and building on the institutions' reputation in addition to their efforts to support marketing and enrollments during the pandemic.Originality/valueResearchers in the past have examined the relationships between QLE and another construct of this study – SS. Past research has also examined the relationship between QLE and POE. However, there is not enough research exploring the relationship between SS and POE. This study establishes the relationship between SS and POE that benefits decision-makers in higher education.

scholarly journals Undergraduate LIS Education in Pakistan: An Overview

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ijaz Mairaj ◽  
Kanwal Ameen
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Personal Communications ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Local Literature

The paper gives an account of undergraduate level library and information science education in Pakistan including independent certificate courses, an optional subject at intermediate and bachelor level, and bachelor program of Allama Iqbal Open University. The paper is based on the literature review and personal communications with selected professionals. There appeared gap in local literature regarding contemporary state of undergrad level education. The review of literature and senior professionals suggested that radical changes are necessary in policies, programs and curricula of different programs at undergraduate level to raise the quality of education.

MOOC and Blended Learning Models

2018 ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Torres-Coronas ◽  
María-Arántzazu Vidal-Blasco
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Current Experience

Interest is growing in educational designs that blend MOOCs with on-campus teaching and researchers are seeking to incorporate the spirit of a MOOC into a hybrid model. This article reports on the current experience of a higher education institution embarking on blended learning models. The aim of this article is to present a case study and to discuss the strategic approach to integrating a MOOC at undergraduate level. The evaluation strategy of this experience uses surveys and focus groups to interpret the results and the perspective of the various stakeholders. The analysis synthesizes the opinion of the main stakeholders – the institution, the students and the academic staff – and shows that in addition to improving the financial viability of MOOCs, blended learning models improve the quality of students' education, strengthen students' academic performance, and encourage academic staff to constantly innovate their teaching and learning process.

Exploring the learning potential of models with secondary school EFL learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-184
Author(s):  
Félix Montealegre Ramón
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Stage 1 ◽  
Model Texts ◽  
Writing Task

Abstract The role of Corrective Feedback (CF) in the process of acquiring a second language (L2) has been deemed an issue of controversy among theorists and researchers alike. In this empirical study, the objective is to investigate the quality of EFL learners’ processing of feedback employing models and different types of noticing (perfunctory or substantive [Qi & Lapkin, 2001]). The study was carried out with 13- and 14-year-old learners placed in two groups and engaged in a three-stage writing task that included composing a picture-based story (Stage 1), comparing their texts with a model (Stage 2), and rewriting the story (Stage 3). The groups differed in the way they were prompted to process the model text. The findings indicate that there are no differences between the two feedback groups within stages. All the participants increased the number of features reported across stages regardless of the feedback condition. The employment of a model text provided the students with alternative features related to lexis, form, and ideas. The potential effects of model texts and types of noticing on L2 learners’ language development are discussed.

Integrating Blogs in Teacher Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 607-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yungwei Hao
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Technology Literacy ◽  
Instructional Model ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Reflective Index

This chapter demonstrates some of the educational merits of blogs; including how blogs can be integrated in teacher education and proposing a methodology for evaluating blogs to meet the goals of reflection and technology literacy in teacher education. An undergraduate-level course was integrated with blog technology to help readers better understand the inquiry-oriented nature of the blog medium. This exemplar course modeled Web 2.0 technology to teacher educators and pre-service teachers who intend to integrate the technology into their future teaching. Surveys and interviews were used to investigate participant attitude toward blogs. The researcher proposes Zeichner and Liston’s (1987) Reflective Index as a potential framework for evaluating the quality of reflection in blogs. It is expected that this instructional model of blogs will help educators, in particular teacher educators and instructional designers, to design courses to more effectively meet the goals of higher-order thinking required in 21st century teacher education.

Arabic learners’ acquisition of English past tense morphology

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Zhao ◽  
Yasuhiro Shirai
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Learner Corpus

Abstract The current study investigates the roles of lexical aspect and phonological saliency in second language acquisition of English past tense morphology. It also explores whether the effects of these factors are affected by data elicitation tasks and learners’ L2 proficiency. We created a learner corpus consisting of data from oral personal narratives from twenty Arabic EFL learners from two proficiency groups (low vs. intermediate/advanced), which were transcribed in CHAT format, tagged, and included in the TalkBank corpora. We also administered a written cloze task. Despite task variations, we find strong evidence that supported the influence of lexical semantics in Arabic learners’ acquisition of past tense marking, confirming the predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis.

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