scholarly journals Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: What English Language Learners Perceive to Be Effective and Ineffective Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Seyyed Hatam Tamimi Sa’d ◽  
Fereshte Rajabi

Vocabulary constitutes an essential part of every language-learning endeavour and deserves scholarly attention. The objective of the present study was three-fold: 1) exploring Iranian English language learners’Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs), 2) examining language learners’ perceptions of vocabulary learning, and 3) exploring Iranian English language teachers’ Vocabulary Teaching Strategies (VTSs). In total, 145  intermediate learners of English as a foreign language, consisting of 114 males and 31 females aged 15 to 27, participated in the study. The triangulated data were collected using three tools: questionnaires, interviews, and class observations. Sixty-seven learners (31 females and 36 males) filled out a 56-statement questionnaire, adopted and adapted from Takač (2008) and translated into Persian. The questionnaire comprised two parts, enquiring as to the learners’ VLSs and the teachers’ VTSs. The findings indicated that females and males differed significantly in their reported VLSs and their teachers’ use of various VTSs. Additionally, 78 learners were interviewed as to their perceptions of effective and ineffective VLSs as well as VTSs. The findings revealed that the most effective VLSs were reported to be: a) reciting, repeating and listening to words, b) using words, and c) memorising words while the most effective VTSs revolved around: a) explanation, b) repetition, and c) dictation. The observations also confirmed the findings obtained via the questionnaire and interviews. In general, the findings are indicative of the limited repertoire of vocabulary acquisition techniques employed by Iranian EFL learners, hence the need for strategy training in how to acquire vocabulary. 

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-55
Author(s):  
M. John Britto

Counselling plays a significant role in bringing out a remarkable change in an individual’s personal and professional life. It has entered a number of domains including education. As human problems are mushrooming day by day in this hi-tech world, there is a dire need for finding solutions to those problems. It is counselling that comes to one’s aid to solve one’s problems that are psychological and personal. In English language teaching and learning too, there are multiple problems encountered by teachers and students as well. This paper discusses how counselling is indispensable to English Language Teaching (ELT) for finding solutions to problems faced by English language learners. Exploring the relevance of counselling to ELT, it also seeks to highlight the benefits of integrating it with ELT. It brings out the need for introspection of English language teachers to provide counselling to students. It enumerates various counselling skills, and presents an account of problem-solving method in ELT and eight approaches to counselling.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026553222199065
Author(s):  
Jakob Patekar

Writing in a foreign language is a particularly difficult skill to develop, especially when young learners are concerned because they are parallelly learning to write in their L1 and do not have strong oral foundations in their L2. The issue becomes even more complex when the ways to assess young learners’ writing are considered, given that research has shown there is room for improvement regarding English language teachers’ assessment literacy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the practices and challenges of assessing the writing of young EFL learners in Croatia. In the first part of the study, 97 English language teachers working with learners from year 1 to year 4 of elementary school (children aged 7 to 10) took an online questionnaire with close-ended and open-ended questions. In the second part, I analyzed the writing tasks that the learners were assigned by the teachers in the school. The results show that teachers do not always use appropriate writing tasks for summative assessment, that they need more support in creating language tests, and that Croatian universities need to do more to prepare future teachers to teach and assess young English language learners.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Badia Muntazer Hakim

Classroom anxiety is a recurrent phenomenon for language learners. There are various factors that cause language anxiety, the most common of which include learners’ excessive self-consciousness and self-awareness concerning their oral reproduction and performance and their peculiar, and quite often misplaced and mistaken, views and beliefs regarding different approaches. Other potential reasons for this problem could include the fear, and the consequent deterrence occasioned thereof, of encountering difficulties in language learning, specifically learners’ individual problems regarding the culture of the target language and the varying social statuses of speakers. The most important fear is, perhaps, the deterrent fear of causing damage to one’s self-identity. Therefore, while needing to paying special attention to language learners’ anxiety reactions, language teachers have a crucial role in helping their students achieve the expected performance goals in the target language. Another factor that could potentially lead to language anxiety is simply the poor command of the target language. This problem could be attributed to linguistic barriers and obstacles language learners encounter in learning and using the target language. In the current study, using a qualitative, semi-structured interview and the focus-group discussion technique, the researcher aims to investigate the factors that contribute to language anxiety among Arab language learners. It focuses on learners both within the classroom setting and without, i.e. in the social context, and recommends a number of approaches to manage and overcome this problem.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-295
Author(s):  
Elnaz Zariholhosseini ◽  
Ehsan Namaziandost ◽  
Mehdi Nasri

Purpose of the study: This article report’s findings from a study on the differences and similarities between experienced and novice English language learners with regards to their personal use of VLS. Methodology: Closed questionnaire and semi-structure interviews were applied to collect the data. The questionnaire was distributed among 60 (30 experienced learners and 30 novice learners). In addition, 20 learners (10 experienced learners and 10 novice learners) were asked to answer the questions in the interview. Therefore, descriptive statistics, U Mann Whitney test, and independent-sample t-test were run to compare and analyzed the data. Main Findings: The finding showed that there were significant differences between experienced and novice learners’ thoughts towards vocabulary learning strategies and experienced learners used vocabulary learning strategies while learning new words in English language learning. Applications of this study: If the learners are taught how to use each strategy correctly, their understanding of the language can naturally be improved. Moreover, VLS is beneficial throughout the process of vocabulary learning which makes learners more independent and allows teachers to focus on other things as well. Novelty/Originality of this study: To the best of researchers’ knowledge, no study has been done on investigating Iranian experienced and novice English language learners` perceptions towards most useful vocabulary learning strategies (VLS).


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-279
Author(s):  
Durga Bhusal

Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques that the learners use them to improve their performance which is important for L2/FL learning and teaching. These strategies are as affecting factors on success or failure of the language learning process. Hence, this paper explores the English language learners’ learning strategies to develop their communicative competence within the theoretical stance of Oxford’s 1990 Language Learning Strategies (LLSs). The study is qualitative in nature where four participants were interviewed to understand their ontological perspectives and practices of different LLSs to enhance their communicative ability in English. The findings show the learners seemed to be usual strategy users. However, social, affective, and metacognitive strategies frequent strategies for developing their communicative competence. It further depicts learners are not always aware of the influence of consciously using language learning strategies for making their learning quicker and more effective. Thus, the teachers need to be the one who helps their students develop the awareness of language learning strategies and enable them to use a wider range of appropriate strategies for further success in their communicative competence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Muhammad Din

Revolutionary changes have been brought about in teaching and learning environment with the introduction of electronic formats in classrooms. Mobile dictionaries are potentially valuable learning tools today. This study has strived to get insight into the prospects of using mobile dictionary in an EFL classroom of university students of Pakistan with reference to teachers’ perspective. The aims of this study are to know foreign language teachers’ point of view regarding the use of mobile dictionary in English class, investigate the challenges in introducing this e-tool and explore the benefits EFL learners can have through the use of mobile dictionaries in English class. To achieve the objectives of this quantitative study, the researcher has got a questionnaire filled by fifty English language teachers working at different government colleges in Pakistan. The questionnaire which was used to collect data from college teachers consisted of two sections. The first section comprised of fifteen questionnaire items on five-point Likert scale the second section consisted of two open-ended questions. The reliability of the first part of the questionnaire was computed through SPSS (XX). It has been found that most of the college teachers are of the view that the use of mobile dictionary in an EFL class of university students will help them learn vocabulary, pronunciation of words and word origin. These EFL learners can also access authentic content and develop their language competence through the use of mobile phone dictionary in the class. Apart from this, the participants have also pointed out some problems which can be a hindrance in using mobile dictionary in an EFL classroom in the context of Pakistan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Chia-Pei Wu ◽  
Huey-Ju Lin

<p>This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test results revealed no significant association between learning strategies and English writing anxiety. The common learning strategies utilized by participants were compensation, social, memory and mixed strategies. The interview data indicated that ELLs suffered considerably from writing anxiety. Coping strategies of highly anxious ELL of each learning strategy group is also reported. However, further studies of larger populations and comparison of different ethnic groups as well as quantitative statistics analyses are needed.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Han ◽  
Masdinah Alauyah Md Yusof

The English language learners’ needs changes from time to time. In Malaysia, the focus of English teaching and learning has shifted from accuracy to fluency; the effective usage of the language. Learners are expected to use the English language in daily communication and to learn the workplace English language communication skill. Due to this demand, language lecturers at higher institutions are expected to assist English language learners to use the language fluently rather than to concentrate heavily on form. Nevertheless, instigating speaking activities in Malaysian classrooms has never been easy and successful. This research was conducted with an aim to identify the underlying factors that motivate or demotivate students’ participation in an English oral classroom. The data were qualitatively collected via students’ self-reflection reports on their own participation in the English language oral class. It was found that teacher’s personality traits, students’ communication skills, learning environment, students’ motivation, self-confidence and topical knowledge, and fascinating discussion topics play significant roles in students’ participation in the English oral class. Thus, these findings could guide language teachers to consider relevant and creative oral activities to encourage students’ active classroom participation.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma Niazi, Farida Azim Lodhi, Huma Mahmood

The purpose of this study was to critically analyze the effectiveness of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, in teaching English language at university level in Karachi, Pakistan. The conceptual framework of the study, included the results of two groups of English language learners that were independent and controlled group. For the current study quantitative research design was used. The population was English language teachers and students of English Department, those were sixty. Stratified sampling was used to extract the research sample. A well-designed test containing twenty-five marks was constructed, to get the achieved outcome of language teaching and learning. It was concluded that incorporating Bloom’s objectives of teaching would be able to improve English language learning among students at tertiary level. It was recommended that teachers training workshops should be arranged for English language teachers, so that they may enhance their knowledge about teaching critical thinking while incorporating Bloom’s objectives of teaching methodology, that may be benefitted both language learners and research in the field of English language learning in Pakistan.


EDULANGUE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Afif Ikhwanul Muslimin

  AbstractOne of the prominent skills to be acquired by English language learners is Language learning strategies (LLSs) which is significant to enhance communicative competence. Individual’s differences in using the strategies depict their understanding on LLSs. An interesting fact on the result of Manajemen Dakwah Department Students (MDDSs) at State Islamic University (UIN) of Mataram in the odd semester of academic year 2018-2019 was 64 students got higher average English scores in their final test (88) compared to their middle test (65) that might reflect different use of LLS. The English subject was focusing on reading comprehension. Furthermore, descriptive qualitative case study was applied to record the dominant LLSs used by ten successful students or achievers in English class who has the criteria of achieving English score above 90. Three instruments were used to gather data, they are: documentation, questionnaire, and interview. The result shows that students used all LLSs and creating their own learning opportunities. Only HN that did not use social strategy though he used all other strategies. It means that successful MDDSs believe that exactly all LLSs are significant for elevating their language learning. Another result shows that the dominant LLSs which were used are compensation as they are good guesser for the unfamiliar words, memory strategy since they always try to memorize to retain the vocabulary in mind, and metacognitive strategy where they always create best setting for them to learn. Keywords: Language Learning Strategies, MDDSs, Dominant LLSs, English Scores.


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