scholarly journals A Study of the Grading of English Language Scripts of Technical University Students in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Edward Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
First Year ◽  
Questionnaire Item ◽  
Test Stage ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Technical University

This paper assesses how English language texts of Technical University (TU) students in Ghana are graded. In their quest for their certificates, Higher National Diploma (HND) students are required to write Communication Skills I and II papers in the first year. Nonetheless, most HND students do not normally perform well in these two courses. The objectives of the paper were, therefore, to find out the type of errors TU students make; and the influence that Direct Corrective Feedback (DCF) has on their texts. The paper was grounded in Noticing Hypothesis theoretical framework. The design of the research was sequential exploratory mixed method (Note 1). The participants for the study were selected from four technical universities – Ho, Koforidua, Kumasi, and Sunyani Technical Universities. From each of the technical universities, 20 participants were randomly selected. Therefore, the sample size, in terms of the participants, was 80. However, 240 raw data were collected. That is each of the 80 participants composed one letter at the pre-test stage. After grading their scripts with DCF technique, the participants were, again, asked to compose another letter at the post-test stage. Also, the participants were made to fill questionnaire item each. SPSS and BLAF were used in analyzing the questionnaire items and the scripts respectively (Note 2). The findings of the study showed that DCF treats written errors effectively. The study, therefore, recommends that assessments of letter-based tasks of TU students should be made up of both pre- and post-test items, and DCF should be used in assessing HND students’ letter or essay-based scripts.

scholarly journals Intercultural Awareness and Writing through the Use of WebQuest: Iraqi Students at Al- Awsat Technical University as a Case Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahad Saleh Al Asadi
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
First Year ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
Post Test ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Learning Platforms ◽  
Technical University

E-Learning platforms offer plenty of opportunities, pedagogies, and challenges in English Language Teaching (ELT). It is already being applied partially in most parts of the world, and certificates are issued from well-known universities. The cultural dimension in ELT has gained in importance. As long as English is a lingua franca, the needs of English foreign learners (EFL) are far from obtaining the skills or accent of the language. This study is significant because it tries to check to what extent can the intercultural awareness and writing through the use of WebQuest help the Iraqi learners to better up their writing skills. They need to understand the similarities and differences between their own culture and the targeted language culture, English. Iraqi learners are part of the EFL students, and it is time to start getting the intercultural awareness. This study is aimed to pay the Iraqi learners' attention to the intercultural awareness issues in order to improve their writing skills. Accordingly, an experimental research is conducted on forty-three first-year participants of Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University. The data of both the Pre-test and Post-test were analyzed by using the SPSS) statistical editor. Results have shown the following: First, the progress of more than (0.05≤) has been detected as far as students' understanding and using some intercultural concepts in their writings. Second, students show unique enthusiasm in surfing the net for assigning their homework about intercultural awareness's props.

scholarly journals Analysis of Item Writing Flaws in a Communications Skills Test in a Ghanaian University

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
ATO KWAMINA ARHIN ◽  
Jonathan Essuman ◽  
Ekua Arhin
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Multiple Choice Test ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Item Writing ◽  
English Language Teachers

Adhering to the rules governing the writing of multiple-choice test items will ensure quality and validity. However, realizing this ideal could be challenging for non-native English language teachers and students. This is especially so for non-native English language teachers because developing test items in a language that neither they nor their students use as their mother tongue raises a multitude of issues related to quality and validity. A descriptive study on this problem was conducted at a Technical University in Ghana which focused on item writing flaws in a communication skills test. The use of multiple-choice test in Ghanaian universities has increased over the last decade due to increasing student intake. A 20-item multiple-choice test in communication skills was administered to 110 students. The test items were analyzed using a framework informed by standard item writing principles based on the revised taxonomy of multiple-choice item-writing guides by Haladyna, Downing and Rodriguez (2002). The facility and discrimination index (DI) was calculated for all the items. In total, 60% of the items were flawed based on standard items writing principles. The most violated guideline was wording stems negatively. Pearson correlation analysis indicated a weak relationship between the difficulty and discrimination indices. Using the discrimination indices of the flawed items showed that 84.6 % of them had discrimination indices below the optimal level of 0.40 and above. The lowest DI was recorded by an item with which was worded negatively. The mean facility of the test was 45%. It was observed that the flawed items were more difficult than the non-flawed items. The study suggested that test items must be properly reviewed before they are used to assess students’ knowledge.

scholarly journals BUILDING BRIDGES: AN APPROACH TO THE INTEGRATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN FIRST-YEAR APPLIED SCIENCE COURSES FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Murphy ◽  
Gabriel Potvin
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
First Year ◽  
Training Approach ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Technical Material ◽  
Effective Development

Vantage College at UBC offers innovative specialized first-year programs for international students that integrate core content courses with complementary language education to allow participants to hone their communication skills while meeting regular academic requirements. In the Applied Science stream of the Vantage program, each first-year engineering course is paired with a language enrichment course, and their respective instructors collaborate, tailoring their content and delivery to improve both the learning of technical material and the effective development of communication skills. This paper outlines the partnership between two physical chemistry courses and their linked language courses. Insights into the nature and logistics of this type of collaboration are presented, and the effectiveness of this training approach is evaluated in relation to the students’ mastery of technical content and improvement of English communication skills. Specific challenges and future improvements of the program are also discussed.

scholarly journals Challenges of Short Sentence Writing Encounter 1st Year Uundergraduate Students in English Language Departments at Al-Baha University

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-131
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ibrahim Alsalami
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Short Sentence ◽  
English Major

This study aims to find out the most common challenges of writing short sentences encountered by first-year English-major undergraduate students of English language departments. A mixed method was used including quantitative and qualitative as data was obtained using student questionnaires and interview questions for the lecturers. About 122 first-year English-major undergraduate students (%50.4 female and %49.6 male) from the English Language Departments at all colleges of Al-Baha University were randomly chosen, including 30 lecturers, and were interviewed in the study (15 males and 15 females). The study revealed significant results which have shown difficulties in constructing short sentences, the distinction of active and passive voice, and the use of conjunctions, punctuations, quantifiers, and the correct auxiliary. Also among common issues, students find difficulties in using comparative and superlative degree, subject–verb agreement and the use of articles. Thus, the study recommends that first-year English-major undergraduate students should be given more written exercises as well as written feedback so that students can be able to write more effective short sentences. The study suggests that more studies could be conducted qualitative researches for first-year students of English language department to investigate and analyze the most common challenges and difficulties of the students’ written samples or documents.

scholarly journals The Effect of Oral Metalinguistic Corrective Feedback on Learners’ Knowledge of Pronoun among Iranian EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 672
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Azimi Amoli
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Metalinguistic Feedback ◽  
Grammatical Errors ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Grammatical Judgment ◽  
The Impact

A great number of language learners claims that they are unable to produce the foreign language accurately without any grammatical errors at the end of their language course. In this study, the impact of oral metalinguistic corrective feedback, among various types of corrective feedback, on learners’ pronoun accuracy was considered. The participants were 74 EFL learners (46 females, 28 males) studying English at Safir English language institutes in Tehran. In order to homogenize the learners, Key English Test (KET) test was given to them. 60 learners were selected for the study and 14 learners were removed. Participants were randomly divided into two groups. One group received metalinguistic feedback and the other group received explicit correction feedback. Grammatical judgment test was used as a pretest and posttest. Eight reading passages from “Select Readings” were another instrument that was used for training through jigsaw task in this study. Then t-test was run to check the significance of the mean difference between pretest and post-test of groups. The results show the priority of experimental group (which received oral metalinguistic feedback) on control group (which received explicit feedback).

scholarly journals The Effect of Facebook Activities on Enhancing Oral Communication Skills for EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Basmah Issa AlSaleem
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
First Year ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Study Results

This study investigated the effect of utilizing Facebook activities on enhancing oral communication skills for English as Foreign Language learners (EFL) in the English Department at Yarmouk University, Jordan. Participants of the study were first year English Language Bachelor degree students who speak English as a foreign language. The researcher hypothesized that if these learners practiced Facebook activities, their oral communication skills may be improved. For answering questions of the study, the researcher designed a pre-post oral communication skills test to determine the participants’ mastery of oral communication skills. Furthermore, she uploaded the activities on a Facebook account that were made available for all the participants of the study. Results revealed that the suggested Facebook activities were effective on improving participants’ oral communication skills. Then the study recommended that Facebook activities may be utilizing on improving other skills such as speaking and listening or even English language pronunciation.

Game-Based Pilot System for English Learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-Chen Li ◽  
Cheng-Ting Chen ◽  
Hui-Chih Wang ◽  
Jia-Sheng Heh
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Learning ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Test Study ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The University ◽  
University Setting

Game-based Pilot System for English learning (GPS-E) is a system that was produced with the intention of assisting English language learners (ELLs) who have lower English proficiency. The study was conducted in a university setting in northern Taiwan. The English classes which were categorized as “Pilot English Classes” were recruited for this research. One major goal of this study is to explore how effective and to what extent the GPS-E system can contribute to students’ English learning in the university level. A survey was designed, and the data of the first year experiment were analyzed by a pre-post test study using the SPSS t-test. Results indicated that students who have tried the GPS-E system have improved significantly.

scholarly journals Knowledge of Medical Communication-Skills Among Pre-clinical Undergraduate Medical Students: a pre-test post-test experimental study.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer Timilsina ◽  
Sirisa MD Ka ◽  
Barun Shrestha ◽  
Gopendra Prasad Deo
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Knowledge Score ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
First Year ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Post Test

Abstract Background Effective physician-patient communication is integral to building confidence, improving compliance, satisfaction and avoiding mishaps and malpractice suits. Communication-skills (CS) training is an internationally accepted essential component of medical education. This study aims to assess the communication-skills knowledge of pre-clinical undergraduate medical students pre- and post- CS course. We expect an improvement in CS knowledge post-intervention. Methods Between March and September 2019, 100 first year pre-clinical undergraduate medical students at Chitwan Medical College were enrolled in CS course. Attitude towards learning CS using communication skills attitude scale (CSAS) and assessment on knowledge of CS was conducted pre- and post-intervention. The intervention included 10 team-based learning (TBL) sessions on selective study areas based on Calgary-Cambridge model. Additionally, students’ demographic profile was collected at the start of the intervention. Results Among 100 students, 70% were males and 30% females. Positive attitude towards learning CS improved by 5%. Statistically significant progress was noted in post-intervention mean scores implying CS to be teachable and learnable. (Wilcoxon Signed ranks test z=-6.178 p<0.001). Knowledge on medical CS improved in the study participants irrespective of sex, entry-type, past-educational institute or attitude. Students with pre-intervention negative attitude showed marked improvement in post-intervention knowledge score (z=-5.674 p<0.001). Conclusion The intervention was effective in increasing students’ knowledge of medical CS, but we did not assess the skills of the students. Continuation of this study is recommended to explore whether CS training could actually improve soft skills of medical students in our part of the world.

scholarly journals EFFECTIVENESS OF READING ALOUD STRATEGIES ON LOW PROFICIENCY PAKISTANI COLLEGE LEVEL FEMALE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FROM HUMANITIES GROUP AT HIGHER SECONDARY SYSTEM: A TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 851-862
Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Sajid Et al.
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
English Language ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
School Level ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Department ◽  
College Level ◽  
Secondary System ◽  
Post Test

Reading is an important part of learning. No one can deny its importance. The importance of reading aloud strategies has increased. Reading aloud strategies are very important, especially for low proficiency students and for those who use the English language as a second language. It is vital for low proficiency students at the national and international levels. This study examines the effectiveness of the read-aloud strategies on low proficiency students at the secondary school level in Multan city. The study was conducted at the higher secondary school of Multan city in Pakistan; data were collected from students of the first year through a questionnaire, and pre-test post-test instruments were also used. The study is based on an experimental research design, and the target sample was 20 students of humanities group and five teachers from the English department. The study found that the reading aloud strategies help low proficiency students at the college level in Pakistan.  

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