scholarly journals The Code Switching and English Language Proficiency Performed by Students in Learning English as a Foreign Language at STKIP-MB

Author(s):  
Diana Oktavia ◽  
Winda Trisnawati
Author(s):  
Tsedal Neeley

This chapter focuses on the Japanese linguistic expats and their linguistic shock, which initially presents a barrier to learning a foreign language. It provides the results of the seemingly insurmountable challenge at the mandate's announcement—base English language proficiency for the Japanese domestic workforce. Here, the term “linguistic expat” is used to describe employees like Kenji who live in their home country yet must give up their mother tongue when they enter their place of employment or sign into a conference call from a remote location. This chapter shows how this twist—a mismatch between language, nationality, and organizational culture—made the Japanese employees uncomfortable. Learning English, at least in the first phase, required that they form new perceptions of themselves, their company, and their jobs. The demands of the mandate made them feel anxious about their productivity and insecure about their future at Rakuten. Although the majority of the linguistic expats progressed in their acquisition of English, few were able to reach a level where fluency was automatic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis ◽  
Helen Woodfield ◽  
Christine Savvidou

AbstractThe present study investigates the nature of email requests to faculty produced by non-native speaker (NNS) teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL), the importance attached by these teachers to linguistic forms designed to achieve email politeness and status-congruence, and the extent to which perceptions and evaluations by the NNS teachers and native-speaker (NS) lecturers might differ with regard to these emails. The study found that the non-native speaker teachers (NNSTs) evidenced a developed sense of sociopragmatic knowledge in high imposition L2 requests for action, and employed politeness strategies that were indicative of a concern to maintain social and face relationships in virtual consultations. It is argued that despite their advanced English language proficiency, the teachers’ reliance on directness, excessive formality, and lengthy grounders could still put them out-of-status and render their emails as pragmatically inappropriate. The study further confirmed significant differences in how the two groups perceive appropriateness and politeness in direct and unmodified student email requests to faculty. Overall, while the NSs judged the emails primarily according to their content and, to a lesser extent, according to their form and framing devices, the NNSTs focused almost exclusively on form and framing devices (in/formality, in/directness, nature and extent of mitigation, opening/closing moves, forms of address).


Author(s):  
Wajahat Taj Abbasi ◽  
Mudassar Mahmood Ahmad ◽  
Faiza Abdalla Elhussien Mohammed

Dictionary is an acknowledged learning tool which has a tremendous role in acquiring a language. It has proved to be helpful in learning vocabulary and developing language proficiency. The use of monolingual dictionaries is thought to be very fruitful for learning vocabulary. The present study used survey method to gain the perception of the students about the use of monolingual dictionaries for learning EFL. The study also used interviews of EFL teachers to support the findings of the study by eliciting their perceptions about the use of dictionaries by students. A questionnaire was administered in two governmental secondary schools of Zulfi, Saudi Arabia. It was sent to 99 students but a number 92 students responded. Internal reliability of the questionnaire was.81. Descriptive statistical methods were used for analyzing the quantitative data. Additional interviews with 9 teachers were also conducted to support the findings of the questionnaire. Collective thematic analysis of all interviews was conducted to analyze the qualitative data. The results showed that students have positive views about the use of dictionaries for learning EFL; they prefer to use monolingual dictionaries, but they cannot truly use them because bilingual dictionaries are easier and more helpful for them in translation as well as their process of learning English language due to their low proficiency levels. The paper puts forth some recommendations and suggestions that will be helpful for using monolingual dictionaries. It concludes by focussing on the problems in handling monolingual dictionaries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (13) ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Seddik ◽  

The complexity of the Moroccan language landscape sparks off a power struggle between languages. The focus in this chapter is on the apparent French/English language contest over supremacy. Here comes the current investigation that aims at gauging Moroccan’s perceptions of French and English through a language questionnaire. Responses were subjected to statistical analyses to support or reject the hypothesis that gender, age and language proficiency affect Moroccans’ evaluations of French and English. The study reveals that Moroccans’ attitudes towards English are significantly more favorable than those towards the French language. Age, but not gender, has turned out to have a statistically significant difference in the overall evaluation of French and English. These evaluations have also been shown to correlate with the respondents’ French and English language proficiency. The result of this study is an indication that Moroccans’ attitudes toward French and English are undergoing a change from a conventional preference for French to a recent favor of English whose phenomenal growth globally may have affected language attitudes locally.


Author(s):  
E. N. Makarova

The article deals with the results of research of sociolinguistic factors’ effect on English phrasal accentuation in the reading authentic English material by Mexican subjects. It features a survey data analysis of the characteristics of the Mexican testees with different levels of English language proficiency. The survey has supplied information about their age at the beginning period of English learning process and its conditions, intensity of its usage at present and subjects’ attitude to the necessity of English phonetics acquisition. The current paper introduces some results of phonetic experiment aimed at revealing Mexican subjects’ ability to intone English speech, namely to choose nucleus in the English utterance. Mexican students’ linguistic competence is proved to be the crucial factor responsible for the correctness in identifying nucleus location. The results presented can be used to contribute to the effectiveness of the English and Spanish as a foreign language teaching as well as for improvement of survey construction in sociolinguistic studies.


Author(s):  
Khattab Jabbar Jassim Al Saadey ◽  
Prof. Dr. Salam Hamid Abbas ◽  
Prof. Dr. Salam Hamid Abbas

Learning styles usually viewed as having a direct impact on foreign language learning. Knowing of students’ learning styles contributes significantly to the development of the level of students in the foreign language where they deal with language inputs differently and each student has a different learning style. Accordingly, foreign language teachers should be aware of the students’ individual differences in general and learning styles in particular. This study aims to find out: 1. Iraqi EFL preparatory school students’ learning styles. 2. Iraqi EFL preparatory school students’ level of language proficiency. 3. The correlation between Iraqi EFL preparatory school students’ learning styles and level of language proficiency. 4. Which of the learning styles do contribute to the interpretation of variation in language proficiency of Iraqi EFL preparatory school students. This study is a correlational research in which the population consists of 325 students from different Iraqi preparatory schools during the academic year 2020/2021. The data is gathered by employing a questionnaire to assess students' learning styles and an English language proficiency test to assess students’ proficiency represented by language skills. After their validity and reliability are verified, the instruments are applied to the research sample. The results of the statistical manipulation showed the following: 1. Iraqi EFL preparatory school students show weak level of language proficiency. 2. The dominant learning styles of Iraqi preparatory school students are random/intuitive style, followed by impulsive/reflective, while the sequential learning style comes third. While the use of closure/open oriented and deductive/inductive learning styles are not statistically significant. 3. Iraqi EFL preparatory school students’ learning styles are statistically correlated with their English language proficiency. 4. The visual, auditory, impulsive/reflective, and synthetic/analytic styles contribut


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Abid Thyab

Phrasal verbs are used very regularly in the English language, and native English speakers are found to use phrasal verbs on a daily basis and cannot do without the use of phrasal verbs in everyday communicative situations. However, phrasal verbs in English language teaching as a second/foreign language is almost non-existent. That is, English as a second language (ESL)/English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching environments, in the Arab world, and specifically in Iraq, hardly teach the meaning of phrasal verbs to students, and neglect teaching the correct ways of using them, despite the fact that they are an essential part of daily native English communication. Therefore, and due to the vitality of phrasal verbs to native speakers of English, ESL/EFL students should be taught and educated to be capable of understanding and using phrasal verbs when interacting in English because knowledge of phrasal verbs would normally lead to better English language proficiency and more native-like communication. Nonetheless, phrasal verbs are not easy, and students often find them difficult, because phrasal verbs carry a specific meaning which is not inferable from the meaning of its composing words inseparable form as well as other reasons which have been explained within this paper. Hence, this paper points to the necessity of including phrasal verbs in English language teaching. Through implementing a qualitative approach, the aim, within this paper, is to identify and list causes of difficulty that learners of the English language may face when it comes to knowledge of English phrasal verbs, with regard to the spontaneous and fluent use of phrasal verbs by native English speakers. The significance, here, is to point out the need of taking this matter into serious concern and to offer suggestions and recommendations for better English as a second/foreign language learning and teaching, all in hope of better English language proficiency and ability.


Author(s):  
Guganeswary Vellayan Et.al

The research investigates the effects of cooperative learning strategy to ameliorate Malaysian ESL students’ speaking skills. It is not an uncommon issue that ESL/EFL (English as Second/Foreign Language)students face some difficulties to interact fluently in English language, in fact, it is a problem faced by students not only in Malaysia but around the world.The Malaysian Education Ministry is working deliberately on increasing students’ English language proficiency in order to unlock all sort of doors for students to excel in their future endeavors. In order to improve ESL students’ speaking skills, an appropriate strategy is crucial in teaching-learning process. This paper also investigates of the ESL students towards cooperative learning and their motivation towards speaking skills. This study is believed to be beneficial to the students, academicians and also the policy makers.


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