scholarly journals UNDERGRADUATE LANGUAGE PROBLEMS IN SHORT STORY THROUGH CREATIVE INTERPRETATION

2015 ◽  
pp. 8-37
Author(s):  
Manal Mohammed Ben- Ahmeida ◽  
farhan Ali
Keyword(s):  
Creative Writing ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Short Story ◽  
English Language ◽  
Reading Skill ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students

This paper is conducted to shed the light on English language problems Libyan undergraduate students face in short story through creative interpretation in reading and writing. Creative writing is a wide range of literature and it deals not only with language but also with the wide imagination of writers. However, it is well known that if language problems increase, then even the imagination cannot help because writing techniques and creativity go on the same path. It has always been a great help for the writers to organize and deliver their writing in a suitable form. Most Libyan students cannot, they have many problems in composing, therefore; when they are asked to conduct a creative writing task, they find it enormously difficult and challenging. Those who have the ability to produce are the talented and skillful ones. In this paper, the aim is to encourage and motivate Libyan students to be effected to creative reading and writing as well as grow their skills and talents. Furthermore, this paper will deal with language problems in reading and writing that are mostly common in all levels of learners, and it will focus mostly on the scope of short story. In addition, the purpose of this paper is to provide ideas, suggestions, and solutions according to the problems that are encountered throughout this study. Reading this paper, will help Libyan EFL teachers realize that creative writing is a talent or a skill that has to be practiced; therefore, we will provide ideas to help teachers avoid favoring students who have the talents and skills in reading and writing over others by treating them equally, helping them grow their ability in being creative. There are some important elements that will be discussed throughout this study and the most elements of all is for Libyan EFL teachers and students to understand that there is a significant relationship between what the learner writes and what he/she reads which is called creative reading. In this paper we will present how the reading skill is also neglected by Libyan students. Students do not read for interest unless they are forced to do so for different reasons. Reading skill is not practiced by Libyan students even in their first language. Unfortunately, Libya is a culture that does not encourage, support, facilitate and provide for reading. Therefore, in this paper, the aim is also to help Libyan students learn that reading someone's piece of work is an essential step for developing the skill of creative writing and that provides the history or background about the expected text, even an imagination for an inspired story. Furthermore, providing this paper is to help Libyan students believe that the more the learner reads, the more he/she writes and creates. We would like students to believe that inspiration and imagination are the path for a readable and meaningful story which leads the writer to creativity. And, we believe that if EFL teachers find a way to provide creativity, students will gain the knowledge needed to write and read creatively.

scholarly journals Pronunciation Errors of Letter “G” in English Language Made by Saudi Undergraduate Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Alqunayeer
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Academic Year

The primary goal of the present study is to identify the problematic areas in the pronunciation of the letter “g” in English written words made by Saudi female learners of English as a foreign language, and the reasons for the weakness associated with mispronunciation of English written words which contain this letter. The population of the study was the female students (90 students) and their English language teachers (12 teachers) at the Qassim University during the academic year (2014-2015). There were two types of instruments used in this study. The first was a pronunciation test for the student participants in order to investigate the problematic areas of pronouncing “g” in different environments in different words; and the second a questionnaire for the teacher participants to provide comprehensive data about the causes of these errors of pronouncing “g” committed by EFL female students at Qassim University. Ninety female students were included for the pronunciation test and 12 teachers were asked to answer the questionnaire. Simple percentage was used for analyzing the data of recording words (pronunciation test). Results of the students’ recording words revealed that the participants mispronounced “g” before nasals (68%). According to the results of the teachers’ responses to the questionnaire suggested many factors that can cause difficulties for students in terms of pronouncing “g” in English written words. According to them, these difficulties are concerned with reading difficulties, nonstandard spellings, letters that follow “g” (many of them may become combinations), loan words, orthography (no correspondence between the English alphabets and their sounds). The researcher offers recommendations that might help teachers and students to overcome and reduce these mispronunciations of this letter in English written words.

scholarly journals "Once upon a Time there was..." A Digital World for Junior High School Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianthi Batsila ◽  
Charilaos Tsihouridis
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
English Language ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Digital Story ◽  
Teachers And Students

This paper looks into what Junior High School learners think of the Web 2.0 tool “Storyboard” for digital story telling purposes and investigates the extent to which it can enhance their receptive and productive skills of reading and writing in the English language. Fifty one randomly selected students, who created a digital story based on a relevant instructive scenario, and their teachers took part in the research. The quantitatively analyzed teachers’ and students’ interviews results and learners’ post-tests data revealed that the tool is considered very motivating and useful increasing learners’ aforementioned English language skills. As learners and teachers indicate “Storyboard” has offered them moments of happiness and joy during their school activities and made their lesson creative and interesting.

scholarly journals The Effects of an Experimental Training Program for Teachers of Vocational English Using Concentrated Language Encounter Instructional Processes and Reciprocal Peer Teaching Strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Saowalak Rattanavich
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Peer Teaching ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Instructional Processes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Writing Tests

This experimental study aims to investigate the effects of three vocational English classes, each one academic semester in duration, and using the concentrated language encounter approach and reciprocal peer teaching strategies. This study employed a time-series design with one pre-experiment and two post-experiments. Discourse and frequency analysis were performed in relation to the teachers’ English language teaching performance and their students’ English listening and speaking performance. The students’ reading and writing tests were subjected to analysis of variance with repeated measures, including plotted line graphs. The results revealed a tendency among the teachers and students to increase the frequency of their English language use in each class. The quality of the students’ reading and writing were also significantly improved. All teachers expressed positive opinions about the experimental teaching treatment and its effect on the students English.

scholarly journals Use of Journal Articles in English Language Classroom

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 110-116
Author(s):  
Sagar Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students

Teaching English without any instructional materials may be difficult or even impossible. There are lots of materials which facilitate both the teachers and students in language teaching and learning. As with other teaching materials and resources, journal articles are also an important source for language teaching. Taking this into account, this article tries to explore how EFL teachers perceive the value of journal articles and how they use them in their classrooms. More specifically, the article tries to explore whether and to what extent journal articles can be used as instructional materials, and what strategies teachers employ to use journals articles to enhance language proficiency of their students.Journal of NELTA ,  Vol. 22, No. 1-2, 2017 December, Page: 110-116

scholarly journals Teachers' and students' attitudes towards reading and writing: Do they correlate to students' achievement in English?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Titus Terver Udu
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
Attitudes Towards Reading

This survey tested the null hypothesis that teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards reading and writing do not simultaneously predict students’ achievement in the English language. The researcher utilized a sample of 38 teachers and 492 senior secondary school students from 12 schools in Benue State, Nigeria, for the study. The researcher developed and utilized the English Language Students’ Attitude Scale (ELSAS), English Language Teachers’ Attitude Scale (ELTAS), and Reading and Writing Achievement Test (RWAT) for data collection. An estimate of internal consistency was obtained through Cronbach’s Alpha and Kuder Richardson’s reliability methods and found to be 0.76 for ELSAS, 0.68 for ELTAS, and 0.81 for RWAT. Data analysis was by multiple regression statistics. The findings revealed that both English language teachers and students have a positive attitude towards reading and writing (F3, 492 = 0.160, p0.05) implying that teachers and students’ attitudes towards reading and writing jointly predicted students’ achievement in the English language in senior secondary schools. To conclude, learning would be facilitated if both teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards reading and writing, and this, in turn, could impact the students’ achievement in the English language. It was recommended that teachers should plan reading and writing instruction that can help students develop positive attitudes to these skills and parents should help in the development of these skills at home.

scholarly journals Exploring the present and target academic English language needs of Iranian undergraduate students: a case at the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-123
Author(s):  
Simin Sattarpour ◽  
Assef Khalili
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Teachers And Students

Background: The content for courses for English for specific purposes (ESP) has been largely determined on the basis of the intuitive judgments and personal preferences of syllabus designers and teachers rather than a standard needs analysis. The present study was an attempt at assessing the current English language abilities of undergraduate students majoring in the medical sciences and identifying their target needs for academic success through quantitative and qualitative methods. Methods: The participants included 197 undergraduate students, 12 Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) teachers, and 15 content teachers from the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Data were collected through a target needs analysis, self-assessment questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. Results: Pronunciation, technical and general vocabulary knowledge, and use of bilingual dictionaries were regarded as ‘important’ and ‘very important’ target needs by the participants, though some significant differences in perceptions were found between content teachers and students. Writing skill, listening comprehension, and speaking were perceived as the weakest points in the students’ current level of ability. There was also a significant difference between the perception of TEFL teachers and students in assessing the students’ linguistic abilities. Furthermore, both students and TEFL teachers voiced their dissatisfaction with certain areas of ESP courses, such as an inadequate number of credits and heterogeneity of classes. Conclusion: To improve the outcome of ESP courses, they should be designed on the basis of a realistic appreciation of all stakeholders’ perceptions in the field, and they should be taught through the cooperation of both TEFL teachers and content teachers working together.

scholarly journals Analysing the Situation of ESL Teaching and Learning in Large University Classes in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 250
Author(s):  
Abdul Hameed Panhwar ◽  
Shah Nawaz Barich ◽  
Syed Khuram Shahzad
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Large Classes ◽  
Language Support ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

The present study is based on a chapter of the PhD project conducted by the main researcher. It aims to explore the ESL teaching and learning practices in a Pakistani university by focusing on difficulties perceived and confronted by learners and teachers, and solutions suggested by them. One of the most significant issues at the university is large classes-exceeding to 100 and more students on average. The main researcher, being an ESL teacher at the target university, faced the same problem of large size and found it difficult to teach these classes. He embarked on analysing the situation so that he might come across some solutions through the suggestions and experiences of the ESL teachers and students of the same university. The design of the study is descriptive and the results of the present study come from the quantitative data collected through student and teacher questionnaires. The Student-participants were 300 undergraduate students from various major subjects attending English language support classes and 22 ESL teachers teaching these English language support classes at different institutes of the university. The data were analysed descriptively and presented with help of the boxplots. The views, commonly held by teachers are supported by the study’s findings i.e., large classes are likely to endorse teacher-centred approaches of teaching; very little significant student-student and teacher-student interaction is practised because of the inadequate physical environment; majority of learners remain off-task and appear to be unruly and they are given little, if any, feedback on their in-class and home tasks. Conversely, many teachers and learners reported that the adoption of group/pair work is likely to be an effective technique to use in these classes. Albeit a few teachers revealed having adopted group work infrequently, none used it all the time.

scholarly journals Reading Specific Small Saccades Predict Individual Phonemic Awareness and Reading Speed

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samy Rima ◽  
Michael C. Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Phonemic Awareness ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Reading Skill ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Free Viewing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fixational Saccades

Small fixational eye-movements are a fundamental aspect of vision and thought to reflect fine shifts in covert attention during active viewing. While the perceptual benefits of these small eye movements have been demonstrated during a wide range of experimental tasks including during free viewing, their function during reading remains surprisingly unclear. Previous research demonstrated that readers with increased microsaccade rates displayed longer reading speeds. To what extent increased fixational eye movements are, however, specific to reading and might be indicative of reading skill deficits remains, however, unknown. To address this topic, we compared the eye movement scan paths of 13 neurotypical individuals and 13 subjects diagnosed with developmental dyslexia during short story reading and free viewing of natural scenes. We found that during reading only, dyslexics tended to display small eye movements more frequently compared to neurotypicals, though this effect was not significant at the population level, as it could also occur in slow readers not diagnosed as dyslexics. In line with previous research, neurotypical readers had twice as many regressive compared to progressive microsaccades, which did not occur during free viewing. In contrast, dyslexics showed similar amounts of regressive and progressive small fixational eye movements during both reading and free viewing. We also found that participants with smaller fixational saccades from both neurotypical and dyslexic samples displayed reduced reading speeds and lower scores during independent tests of reading skill. Slower readers also displayed greater variability in the landing points and temporal occurrence of their fixational saccades. Both the rate and spatio-temporal variability of fixational saccades were associated with lower phonemic awareness scores. As none of the observed differences between dyslexics and neurotypical readers occurred during control experiments with free viewing, the reported effects appear to be directly related to reading. In summary, our results highlight the predictive value of small saccades for reading skill, but not necessarily for developmental dyslexia.

scholarly journals THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULA FOR SECONDARY STAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF EFL TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS IN JORDANTHE ACHIEVEMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULA FOR SECONDARY STAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF EFL TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS IN JORDAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Bani Amer ◽  
Majid Mohammad Al-Khataybeh
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Secondary Stage ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
English Language Teachers

This study aims to investigate whether or not the goals of English language curricula for secondary stage have been achieved from the perspectives of EFL teachers and supervisors in Jordan. The participants were 101 EFL teachers and 8 supervisors in Al_Karak educational directorates of Education during the first semester 2020/2021. The researchers designed a questionnaire consisting of fifty-nine items in four areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, used to collect the data for this study. The findings of this study showed that English language teachers and supervisors were mostly satisfied with the goals of English language curriculum for secondary stage. The means for all the areas according to English language teachers was 3.31 while the means for all the areas according to English language supervisors was 3.27. This implies that English language teachers and supervisors were satisfied with the goals of English language curriculum for secondary stage.

scholarly journals USING TV COMMERCIALS AS AUTHENTIC MATERIALS FOR TEACHING LISTENING

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Fendik Wahyoe Saputro ◽  
Sulistyani Sulistyani
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Tv Commercials ◽  
Natural Way

The use of authentic materials is important in teaching EFL students due to its real life English language usage. For this reason, this article discusses the way how to use TV commercials as an authentic materials in teaching one of the skills in English, that is listening. This article serves several materials, activities, and steps of how we implement the usage of TV commercials as authentic materials to improve listening ablity of the students. These materials, activities and steps is aimed to encourage and to give the real life usage of English, so the students can implement it in their daily communication abroad. These strategies was collected through several articles reading and experts in EFL teaching. It is known that both EFL teachers and students have much to gain from TV commercials. TV commercials have visual, verbal and written images, interesting vocabulary and cultural features, and help students to improve their listening skills and to speak English in a more natural way.  Keywords:  TV commercials, authentic materials, teaching listening

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