scholarly journals Task-induced Involvement Load, Vocabulary learning and Reading Comprehension Among Iranian Intermediate English as a Foreign Language Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 210-218
Author(s):  
Seyedeh Mitra Khodaparast ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Keshmirshekan
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Involvement Load ◽  
Experimental Group

The importance of vocabulary in a second language is so self-axiomatic that it renders learning and teaching a must. The present study aimed to explore whether the manipulation of the task components, as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn, affected the acquisition of English vocabularies by EFL learners. The present study followed an experimental design in that it used pre-test and post-test to collect data from the participants. The current research included 50 EFL students from two private English language institutions in Yazd, Iran. The study included two distinct reading tasks that placed varying loads on participants. The two reading texts were controlled for their difficulty level: one with the high level of involvement load and the other with lack of involvement load, thus two experimental groups. There was a reading comprehension exam for those who participated in the first experimental group (with a high involvement load). Reading comprehension was assessed using the first Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS1), which measures vocabulary knowledge. The second reading comprehension assignment was simultaneously presented to the second experimental group (the one with a low involvement load). After two weeks, they were administered VKS2, and their results were recorded. Analyzing the data was done by using independent t-tests. Exposure to high levels of involvement load has been shown to impact vocabulary development in English learners. This is despite respondents being able to recall more words from high-involvement vocabulary acquisitions than from low-involvement vocabulary acquisitions. Findings from this study may be used to construct practical tasks of reading with suitable degrees of difficulty for English language learners (EFL/ESL) teachers and vocabulary instructors.

scholarly journals Crossing Borders toward Young Transnational Lives

2014 ◽  
pp. 200-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Sue Kasun ◽  
Cinthya M. Saavedra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Cultural Identification ◽  
Return Visits ◽  
The U.S

Young immigrant youth often live their lives across borders, either by physically crossing them for return visits and/or by metaphorically crossing them through social media and cultural identification. The authors argue these students are better understood as transnational, shifting the focus for educators away from imagining their immigrant students on a straight, one-way path to assimilation in the U.S. to understanding these youths’ abilities to cross borders. Specifically, they call for a redesignation of English Language Learners (ELLs) as Transnational English Learners (TELs). Highlighting examples of educators’ successful border-crossing work, the authors call for educators to cross borders as well in their curriculum and relationships with transnational youth.

scholarly journals Language testing

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-271
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
National Association ◽  
Research Journal

07–449Barber, Richard (Dubai Women's College, UAE), A practical model for creating efficient in-house placement tests. The Language Teacher (Japan Association for Language Teaching) 31.2 (2007), 3–7.07–450Chang, Yuh-Fang (National Chung Hsing U, Taiwan), On the use of the immediate recall task as a measure of second language reading comprehension. Language Testing (Hodder Arnold) 23.4 (2006), 520–543.07–451Hyun-Ju, Kim (U Seoul, Korea), World Englishes in language testing: A call for research. English Today (Cambridge University Press) 22.4 (2006), 32–39.07–452Mahon, Elizabeth A. (Durham Public Schools, North Carolina, USA), High-stakes testing and English language learners: Questions of validity. Bilingual Research Journal (National Association for Bilingual Education) 30.2 (2006), 479–497.07–453McCoy, Damien (Australian Centre for Education and Training, Vietnam), Utilizing students' preferred language learning strategies for IELTS test preparation. EA Journal (English Australia) 23.1 (2006), 3–13.07–454Menken, Kate (City U New York, USA), Teaching to the test: How no child left behind impacts language policy, curriculum, and instruction for English language learners. Bilingual Research Journal (National Association for Bilingual Education) 30.2 (2006), 521–547.07–455Pae, Tae-Il (Yeungnam U, China) & Gi-Pyo Park, Examining the relationship between differential item functioning and differential test functioning.Language Testing (Hodder Arnold) 23.4 (2006), 475–496.07–456Rimmer, Wayne (U Reading, UK), Measuring grammatical complexity: The Gordian knot. Language Testing (Hodder Arnold) 23.4 (2006), 497–519.07–457Rupp, André A. (Humboldt U, Berlin, Germany) Tracy Ferne & Hyeran Choi, How assessing reading comprehension with multiple-choice questions shapes the construct: A cognitive processing perspective. Language Testing (Hodder Arnold) 23.4 (2006), 441–474.07–458Vanderveen, Terry (Kangawa U, Japan), The effect of EFL students' self-monitoring on class achievement test scores. JALT Journal (Japan Association for Language Teaching) 28.2 (2006), 197–206.07–459Van Moere, Alistair (Lancaster U, UK), Validity evidence in a university group oral test. Language Testing (Hodder Arnold) 23.4 (2006), 411–440.

Introspections on In-Service Teachers' Intercultural Responsiveness Skills for English Language Learners

2017 ◽  
pp. 181-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Slapac ◽  
Kim H. Song ◽  
Cynthia C. Chasteen
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Group Interviews

This chapter discusses the successes, concerns and challenges faced by in-service teachers in the instruction of English Learners (ELs). The constructs of intercultural responsiveness (IR), cultural competence (CC), linguistic competence (LC) and professional development (PD) are used as conceptual frameworks. The researchers are drawing on data gathered at a statewide conference focused on dual language (DL) education from five focus group interviews and informal conversations with twenty-seven in-service teachers and administrators at all levels of education, and the researchers' field notes .Vignettes of the participants' voices highlight their perspectives and experiences working with ELs. The authors hope that these stories of celebrations and struggles will engage other teachers and administrators to take a deeper look into their personal practices and pedagogies of working with ELs.

The Language Policy of Placement Tests for Newcomer English Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 936-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendall King ◽  
Martha Bigelow
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
High Stakes

U.S. public schools are required to establish policies ensuring that English language learners have equal access to “meaningful education.” This demands that districts put into place mechanisms to determine student eligibility for specialized English language services. For the most states, this federal requirement is fulfilled through the local administration of the WIDA–Access Placement Test (W-APT), arguably the most widely used, yet under-studied, English language assessment in the country. Through intensive participant observation at one, urban new student intake center, and detailed qualitative, discursive analysis of test administration and interaction, we demonstrate how the W-APT works as a high-stakes assessment, screener, and sorter, and how test takers and test administrators locally negotiate this test and enact this federal and state policy. Our analysis indicates that the W-APT is problematic in several respects, most importantly because the test does not differentiate adequately across students with widely different literacy skills and formal schooling experiences.

Toward modeling reading comprehension and reading fluency in English language learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh Yaghoub Zadeh ◽  
Fataneh Farnia ◽  
Esther Geva
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
English Language

The statistics of English in China

English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rining Wei ◽  
Jinzhi Su
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
National Language ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
The World ◽  
Populous Country

In the mid-1980s, Crystal (1985) lamented that there were no reliable figures available for the number of learners to whom English is taught as a foreign language in many regions of the world, and that ‘China has always been excluded from the statistical reviews, because of the shortage of information from inside the country’ (Crystal, 1985: 9). More recently, Bolton (2008: 6) similarly notes that because of ‘the absence of accurate language surveys’ academics have to make educated guesses regarding the total number of those learning/knowing English. The figure of the total English learners/users in China has been estimated to be somewhere between 200 and 350 million (cf. Bolton, 2003: 48; Kachru, 1997; McArthur, 2003; Zhao & Campbell, 1995; Graddol, 2006: 95). Fortunately, a national language survey in China conducted at the turn of the century does provide some hard statistics on the number of English language learners/users in the world's most populous country, and also sheds some light on the realities of use of English and English proficiency among the Chinese people.

The Effects of Explicit Metapragmatic Instruction on Chinese English Language Learners’ Acquisition of Compliment Responses

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhou Wen ◽  
Deng Jun
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Compliment Responses ◽  
English Major ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Experimental Group

AbstractThe present study investigated the effects of explicit metapragmatic instruction on foreign language learners’ performance of compliment responses (CRs). Eighty-two non-English major students participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to two groups, an experimental group that received explicit metapragmatic instruction on compliment responses and a control group that did not. A pretest-posttest research design was adopted. The data were collected through a written discourse completion task (WDCT) with six scenarios concerning the topics of appearance, performance, and personality. The results revealed that learners who received explicit instruction dramatically decreased their use of Accept strategy and increased Combination (CB) strategy at the macro level; more specifically, a decrease in Appreciation and an increase in Accept + Accept at the micro level. The learners of the control group made little progress in their performance. The study sheds light on pragmatics learning in an EFL setting and provides implications for pragmatics pedagogy.

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