Can the English language in music, on TV and the Internet improve formal EFL results of secondary school students?

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 984
Author(s):  
Özlem Eryılmaz Muştu ◽  
Sare Ucer

In the current study, the purpose is to determine the secondary school students’ cognitive structure related to the concept of atom by using the drawing technique. The study was conducted with the participation of 90 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in 2016-2017 school year. The students were asked two open-ended questions to illustrate the concept of atom in their minds and to explain where they have learned the information expressed in their drawings about the atom so that the atom models in their minds could be elicited. The students’ responses to these questions were categorized by means of qualitative analysis and frequencies were calculated for them. At the end of the study, it was determined whether the atom models drawn by the students are false or acceptable. It was seen that the students rarely illustrated nucleus and electrons in their drawings and they usually drew spheres. Moreover, the students stated that they learned this information mostly from different textbooks or the Internet. Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.  ÖzetÇocuklar, etraflarında olan olaylara karşı aşırı meraklıdırlar ve kavramlara kendileri kişisel anlamlar yüklemektedir. Öğrencilerin kavramları anlayabilmeleri için kavramların zihinlerine doğru bir şekilde kodlanması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada; ortaokul öğrencilerinin atom kavramı ile ilgili bilişsel yapılarının çizim tekniği ile belirlemesi amaçlanmıştır. 2016-2017 eğitim öğretim yılı bahar döneminde gerçekleştirilen çalışma; 5., 6., 7. ve 8. sınıflarında  öğrenim görmekte olan toplam 90 ortaokul öğrencisiyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmada öğrencilerin zihinlerindeki atom modellerini belirlemek amacıyla atom kavramı ile ilgili bir çizim yapmaları ve bu çizdikleri şekle ait bilgiyi nereden öğrendiklerini ifade edebilmeleri için iki adet açık uçlu soru sorulmuştur. Öğrencilerin verdikleri cevaplar nitel analiz yöntemiyle kategorilere ayrılmış ve frekans değerleri elde edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda öğrencilerin çizdikleri atom modellerinin yanlış veya kabul edilebilir seviye olduğu belirlenmiştir. Öğrencilerin çizimlerinde nadiren çekirdek ve elektronlara yer verdiği genellikle küre şeklinde çizim yaptıkları görülmektedir. Ayrıca öğrencilerin bu bilgilere genellikle farklı ders kitaplarından veya internetten öğrendiklerini ifade ettikleri tespit edilmiştir.


2019 ◽  
Vol X (28) ◽  
pp. 203-224
Author(s):  
Ivana Odža ◽  
Mirjana Matea Kovač

The paper examines the attitudes of secondary school students, e. g. grammar school and craftmanship secondary school, toward their own language competences in the native (Croatian) and foreign (English) language. The testing instrument is a questionnaire with statements compiled according to questionnaires used to study attitudes toward the native and / or foreign language. The aim of the research is to observe the level of awareness of the respondents about their own language competences. The results of the statistical analysis indicate that the students of both populations are satisfied with their speaking skills in both languages. They also claim to recognize their own errors, as well as the errors and speech disfluencies of others. Grammar school students, unlike students from the craftmanship secondary school, find the introduction of a course that would further develop speaking skills useful. The obtained results are not in line with the dominant curricular guidelines for teaching the native language, especially those related to the area of speaking competences, emphasizing the need to strengthen the basic, spoken, and consequently written competences of students. The reasons for such attitudes could be explained by insufficient knowledge of the underlying features of highly developed communication competence and consequently of insufficient awareness of their own, as a necessary prerequisite for successful interaction in the contemporary society. The research results point to the necessity of acquiring a more objective perception of students about their own language competences. Keywords: speaking competences; speech errors; speech disfluency; students’ attitudes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-199
Author(s):  
Wafaa Ibrahim Alnajjar ◽  
◽  
Reem Yahya Mahmoud Shehadh

This paper examined the attitudes of secondary school students towards the use of saying and words of wisdom in learning English as a foreign language in secondary schools in Gaza. Saying and words of wisdom play a significant role in language learning as a part of gaining cultural knowledge. In addition, this study attempted to find out whether they could motivate students to learn English then improve language acquiring through time. 40 secondary female EFL learners were assigned in questionnaires and interviews. Through observation, the researcher convinced that saying and words of wisdom is an important segment in the English Language, and it is a useful piece that has been used to spread wisdom and truths about life. The study reveals the effectiveness and higher rate of retaining of learning vocabulary through the strategy of sayings and words of wisdom compared to the traditional method.


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