scholarly journals Implementation of a Thematic Analysis Method to Develop a Qualitative Model on the Authentic Foreign Language Learning Perspective: A Case Study in the University of Northern Cyprus

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 544
Author(s):  
Mohsen Mortazavi ◽  
Afshin Davarpanah
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Qualitative Model ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Theoretical Saturation

Environmentally friendly occasions allow foreign language learners to further concentrate on realizing their extensive knowledge of the English language. Exercises and activities performed in foreign language classes have been criticized for a lack of authenticity, which prevents language learners from learning the real-life usage of language. In this paper, we developed a qualitative model based on the thematic analysis method (TAM) to distinguish the efficacy of research strategies. The number of participants was defined based on theoretical saturation. To collect the data, 18 participants were selected from the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in Cyprus. The selection of participants was according to their involvement in research-based projects. Theoretical saturation occurred after 15 semi-structured interview forms from participants; however, we selected three extra participants to obtain more reliable results. The reliability of the qualitative model was explicitly illustrated by colleagues who were experts in this field by reviewing and analyzing the proposed model with previous models. It was concluded that the two principles of motivation (principle 11) and provision of collaborative opportunities (principle 4) had the highest frequencies, of 22.47% and 19.66%.

scholarly journals African Immigrant Teachers Teaching Young EFL Learners: A Racial Discrimination Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Chinaza Solomon Ironsi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
African Immigrant ◽  
Immigrant Teachers ◽  
Second Language Teachers

Teaching English language to young learners in an English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language context could be challenging especially for African immigrants, as they face varying arrays of challenges ranging from low wages, staff abuse, and other racial discriminations. A lot has been written about racially related issues in our school system yet there are limited works of literature that focus on the challenges of African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers with regards to racial discrimination. To investigate this, a mixed-method research design was used to elicit information from 68 African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers, teaching young English as a Foreign Language learners in 3 countries. The participants were purposively chosen after obtaining written and oral consent from them. A structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview questions were instruments for data collection. Reliability and validity checks were carried out before administering the questionnaire. After analysis, a notable finding was that African immigrant teachers felt unaccepted by the host communities and this made it difficult for the English as a Second Language learners to listen to classroom instructions given by these immigrant teachers. Again, the parents of these learners find it difficult to accept African immigrant teachers teaching their children as they deemed them incompetent to teach them. Other findings of the study were vital in making pedagogical conclusions on racial discrimination issues encountered by African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers. The ways forward for an all-inclusive educational system devoid of ethnic, religious, sexuality and racial issues were suggested.

scholarly journals The Tourism Students’ Awareness of Communicative Competence in an English as a Foreign Language Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 184
Author(s):  
Ercilia Loera Anchondo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Ciudad Juarez ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Context

The present research aimed to find out the students’ awareness towards the concept of communicative competence and to discover if exposure serves as a tool in the development of the latter. Applying a mixed-method research design, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered with three different instruments: a face-to-face questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, and a structured observation. The subjects consisted of forty-six English as a Foreign Language learners in the intermediate and advanced levels in the Tourism major at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Eleven questions were designed to find out the students’ awareness on communicative competence and its components. The interview was based on the elements of communicative competence and the activities related to exposure to the target language. The observation considered details in regards to the students’ performance in the linguistic and pragmatic components of communicative competence. Results indicated that participants are aware of the concept under study and its components. Their answers to the interview and their performance in the observation proposed that exposure to the target language have been used towards the development of certain elements in their communicative competence. Recommendations derived from the present study include making students comprehend what the acquisition of a communicative competence encompasses, which is to manage the target language through the use of the four skills. Secondly, it is of great importance to promote in students the habit of practicing the target language outside the classroom. Finally, it is necessary to pay attention to phonological features such as word stress, pitch, and intonation to improve pronunciation.

scholarly journals Mediation in Peer Interaction

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Saraswati Dawadi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Peer Interaction ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Regular Classroom ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Graduate Level ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
High Level

This article examines the strategies used by the high-level English as a foreign language learners to mediate understanding in peer interactions. The data was generated from peer interactions of post graduate level students in their regular classroom. It was found that the students were able to understand communicative intent of their peers and provide support to each other; they worked collaboratively and co-constructed knowledge. They used different strategies to mediate understanding. The major strategies included: repetition, elaboration, definition, contextual cues, scaffolding, paralinguistic cues and real life examples. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12079   Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 47-55  

scholarly journals Teaching russian phraseology with the component of color term “black” to philology foreign students

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SPE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Chernova ◽  
Elena Lelis ◽  
Svetlana Baranova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Regional Geography ◽  
Color Term ◽  
The Russian Language

The study of phraseology is an advanced direction of teaching methods of Russian as a foreign language. Any non-native speaker embarking on a study of Russian is faced with the problems of understanding the phraseological units that the Russian language is replete with. Language learners experience particular difficulties when using phraseological units with the color designation component “black” in a real-life communicative situation. The problem of understanding the phraseology of the Russian language is associated with the fact that representatives of different countries have knowledge of the phraseology of their native language that encompasses regional geography, linguoculturological, national concepts, which often do not coincide with similar phenomena in the Russian environment. This paper scientifically substantiates the methodological system for working with phraseological units in the study of Russian as a foreign language. It presents a system of scientifically grounded assignments for foreigners to learn Russian as a foreign language.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural Study of Perception of Humor by English Native Speakers and Iranian EFL Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Maryam Farnia ◽  
Atena Farhangi ◽  
Masoud Saeedi
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Morphological Type ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
The Body ◽  
Efl Learners

As an instance of foreign language comprehension, L2 humor perception is proved to be challenging for the foreign language learners. However, the body of literature is heavier on the side of humor production than humor perception. The current study explores the extent to which Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) learners perceive different types of English humor in comparison with the English native speakers. The participants were 153 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level of language proficiency who were randomly selected from English language learners from several English language institutes in Shiraz, Iran, and 30 American English native speakers who voluntarily participated in this study. A questionnaire consisting of six contextualized jokes of three major types of universal, cultural and linguistic (with morphological, phonological, lexical and syntactic subcategories)was developed based on Schmitz's classification of verbal humor to obtain the quantitative data. Moreover, a semi-structured interview was conducted to elicit the perception of those participants who did not find the jokes humorous. The results showed that the majority of Iranian EFL participants did not realize the humor in the jokes. Also, the findings revealed that generally speaking, Iranian EFL learners' perception of humor is significantly lower in all types of jokes examined. The best perceived type of humor was found to be the linguistic humor of morphological type for the Iranian EFL learners and the lexical type for English native speakers. It was also discovered that the phonological humor was the least perceived type of humor for both Iranian EFL learners and English native speakers.

scholarly journals On the nature of collocations and ways of teaching them in foreign language classes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Tünde Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractWhen it comes to teaching vocabulary in foreign language classes words are often taught in isolation, without regard to the context in which they appear. The paper draws attention to the importance of teaching words in context so that the meaning of a word often results from the meaning of a larger construction it is part of. After presenting the morpho-syntactic and semantic characteristics of collocations, and the difficulties language learners face in acquiring them, the paper presents a few ideas on how to teach collocations, giving examples of activities and exercises that can facilitate the learning process. The focus has been laid on activities that can complement the lessons in class, can be applicable at different levels and also require relatively little preparation from the part of the teacher. In addition, an important aspect has been to choose activities that language learning have fun doing (that include creativity, problem solving, humor, real life examples, own experiences, etc.) and that integrate the necessary language learning skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). Without the intention of being exhaustive, the paper concentrates on those activities and tasks that present collocations in their entirety, as constructions, assuming that these are the most useful for students. While the ideas presented are generally applicable in foreign language classes, the present paper has been written with native Hungarian speakers in mind.

Students' Lived Experience of Online Education Challenges in the Covid-19 Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 2401-2405
Author(s):  
Helia Nodeh
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Data Collection Tool ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Theoretical Saturation

The present study examines students' lived experience of the online education challenges in the Covid-19 era. The method is qualitative and field. The qualitative method used in the present study was Phenomenology. Participants included online learning students. Participants were sampled using purposive sampling with homogeneous sampling and a maximum diversity approach. This problem is continued until the theoretical saturation is reached. Finally, 14 interviews are conducted. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis is used to analyze the data. The results showed that there are 5 main themes and 33 sub-themes. The results show that the online education challenges in the Covid-19 era included technical, managerial, Essential, cultural, and human challenges. In other words, paying attention to the identified challenges can pave the way for improving the online education situation in the Covid-19 era. Keywords: schools, Covid-19, online education.

The Use of Technology to Enhance English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners’ Descriptive Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 961-972
Author(s):  
Nurul Atiqah Shararuddin Et.al
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Interview Session ◽  
Time Restriction ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Descriptive Writing

This research investigates on the use of technology to enhance ESL learners’ descriptive writing. The purpose of this study being carried out is to find out the underlying reasons behind ESL learners’ inability to write good descriptive writing. Apart from that, this research was also carried out to find out why technology was the approach chosen to solve the raised issues in descriptive writing as well as finding out students’ perception on the use of technology to act as an aid to their descriptive writing skill. This is an action research study in which thirty-four students of Form 4 participated. The instruments used to obtain data from students were open ended questions, semi structured interview and teacher’s reflective entry. Only three students were chosen for the semi structured interview session using purposive sampling method, the justification for this is that they vary in terms of their proficiency and the researcher had a time restriction to interview all thirty-four students. Data was analysed using thematic analysis method. The result of this study shows that the incorporation of technology has enhanced students’ performance in descriptive writing.

scholarly journals Socio-pragmatic Deficiency in E.Requests

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Shurooq Abboodi Ali
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Authentic Data ◽  
E Mail

<p>The speech act of request is face-threatening by nature and an inappropriate request can cause offence to the hearer, particularly when s/he has higher authority (Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2011). E-mail is frequently used to facilitate communication between student and professor in Iraq. Iraqi EFL (English as a foreign language) learners face pragmatic difficulty in making proper requests to individuals of higher authority via e-mail. Some studies have been conducted on Arab EFL learners to uncover the pragmatic behaviour of these learners in real-life requests using elicited data. This research fills a gap in Inter-language Pragmatics (ILP) literature in that it investigates the use of academic request in three diverse imposition levels (low, medium, and high) by Iraqi EFL learners when they communicate with their professors via e-mail. This study uses authentic data consists of 200 e-mails related to academic requests sent by Iraqi EFL learners to their professors. Besides, the study uses the CCSARP (cross-cultural speech act realisation project) originally proposed by Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989) and modified later by Biesenbach-Lucas (2007). Qualitative and quantitative analyses are used to analyse the data. The findings reveal that Iraqi EFL learners primarily use direct strategy in all types of request impositions by e-mail. These learners have socio-pragmatic deficiency in high imposition requests; that is, they are mainly direct with their professors in requests call for conventional indirectness to be acceptable pragmatically.</p>

scholarly journals Exploring the Dynamic Interplay Between Foreign Language Enjoyment and Learner Engagement With Regard to EFL Achievement and Absenteeism: A Sequential Mixed Methods Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunxian Guo
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods

Scholarly attention to the feeling of enjoyment experienced in second language acquisition (SLA) has sharply increased in the past 5 years owing to its positive effect on facilitating academic outcomes as well as promoting language learners' well-being. This sequential mixed methods study aims to examine the interplay between Foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and learner engagement (LE) as well as their combined effects on participants' EFL achievement and absenteeism. To this end, we administrated a questionnaire containing the adapted FLE Scale and the four-aspect engagement inventory among 707 Chinese university students and a semi-structured interview among 28 of them. Statistical analysis revealed that FLE was highly and positively correlated with LE, and the causal relationship between the two constructs was reciprocal. Furthermore, both FLE and LE had low correlations with participants' academic achievements, but no significant correlation was found between FLE or LE and absenteeism. However, a higher level of FLE-social was associated with a lower level of absenteeism. Finally, no gender differences were found either in the level FLE or in that of LE. The thematic analysis indicated that FLE was subject substantially to teacher-related variables and the second most significant attractor of FLE was FLE-self. Analysis of the trends of LE indicated that Chinese EFL learners preferred to engage themselves in their English study more emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively than agentically. Pedagogical implications of the findings for EFL practitioners are also discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.

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