Teaching Critical Thinking and Academic Writing Skills to Japanese University EFL Learners

2015 ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
Neil Heffernan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Satisfaction Survey ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners

This chapter looks at a critical thinking and academic writing skills course designed for Japanese learners of English. The study presents two sets of data from the 87 participants who have taken part in the course since its inception in 2008. The first data set is concerned with actual writing samples from multiple drafts of a medium-sized research project carried out by the student participants. The second data set results from a self-assessment survey given to the learners both at the beginning and end of the 15-week course described in this chapter. Further, results from a satisfaction survey given to learners at the end of the course are presented. The chapter concludes with some pedagogical implications for both Japanese and other Asian EFL learners and how the methods used in the course described within can be replicated elsewhere.

A Lexical Study Based on Corpora, DDL, and Moodle

2011 ◽  
pp. 204-218
Author(s):  
Yasunori Nishina
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Abstract Noun ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Lexical Study ◽  
Implied Meaning ◽  
English Noun

This chapter suggests an effective method for lexical studies using Moodle within the framework of data-driven learning based on parallel concordances, and particularly shows how teachers can prepare and compile materials of a specific keyword for Japanese learners of English. It is often the case that knowledge of L1 possessed by EFL learners affects that of L2 when they do L2 writing. The author shows this using the case of the English abstract noun condition, because it differs in its usage (e.g., implied meaning and context) by English native speakers and by Japanese EFL learners. Errors of this kind can be overcome by presenting parallel concordances concerning translation equivalents and their synonyms of the English noun in question. Thus, the several steps in the compilation of classroom materials based on parallel concordances with Moodle are presented here.

scholarly journals The Role of Peer- and Self-Assessment in Developing Saudi EFL Learners’ English Writing Skills

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Manal Obaid Alshammari
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Group A ◽  
Group B

<p>The current study focuses on the importance of integrating peer- and self-assessment in<br />teaching English as a second/foreign language in Saudi Arabia. It pays special attention to the<br />mechanisms by which Saudi EFL learners can improve their English writing skills if they<br />engage in peer- and self-assessment regularly. To this end, the researcher administered a<br />writing composition task to measure the participants’ ability to express themselves in good<br />English, focusing on the coherence, cohesion, word choice, spelling, punctuation, and layout<br />of their essays. The researcher utilised the experimental two-groups design of a pre-test and a<br />post-test, in order to evaluate the participants’ performance prior to the application of the<br />treatment (i.e. peer- and self-assessment) and after it. For the purpose of the study, the<br />participants were divided into two groups: students in group A (i.e. the treatment group)<br />engaged in peer- and self-assessment regularly throughout the term, whilst students in group<br />B (i.e. the control group) did not. The results of group A on the pre-test and post-test were<br />compared to those of group B to determine whether the treatment had any impact on their<br />performance. The results reveal that group A outperformed their group B counterparts on the<br />post-test. The statistical analysis demonstrates that the difference between the results of the<br />two groups was statistically significant, suggesting that the treatment contributed positively to<br />the performance of the treatment group. Finally, the study concludes with recommendations<br />for further research.</p>

scholarly journals Reading - Based Writing Model: A blended learning alternative

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-180
Author(s):  
Yenni Rozimela
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Validation Process ◽  
Efl Learners

ABSTRACT Writing is often regarded as a difficult skill to acquire by majority of EFL learners. Teaching writing is also unquestionably challenging. It is argued that an essential effort to assist learners is having them explore information to write through reading topic and genre- related sources extensively. This article seeks to explain the result of a study employing R&D method to develop a Reading-Based Model to teach academic writing. It will report the results of the needs analysis briefly and then explain the model itself. The data about the students' needs of writing according to the students and the writing lecturers were collected through questionnaire and interview. The results of needs analysis and relevant literature confirmed that reading prior and during writing is elemental. The syntax of the model was developed on the basis of literature dealing with the principles of reading-writing relations and the Genre-based Approach. It consists of 4 main stages. Some activities within each stage can be carried out online. The model has gone through a validation process by two experts (two experienced lecturers teaching writing skills). The model was considered valid by the experts; a few recommendations were concerned with additional activities.

scholarly journals Educational Turning Point in Albania: No More Mechanic Parrots but Critical Thinkers

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Mirela Dubali Alhasani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Educational Transformation ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

<p>Since 2004 Albanian academics have been making efforts to establish the best Western practices of academic writing associated with critical thinking and writing skills for university students. In this article, I will shed light upon the special challenges and peculiarities the establishment of Academic Writing discipline has encountered in Albania over the years of educational transformation in the broad framework of democratic political transition. I argue that the socio-political indoctrination of the society during five decades of communist dictatorship has delayed the cultivation of critical thinking, reading and, consequently, critical writing skills for academic and occupational opportunities. Moreover, the research will not be limited only to causal factors of delay, instead, it will pave the way to recommendations that accelerate the successful acquisition and possession of such crucial academic writing skills for Albanian university graduates and academia in general.</p><p>First, I provide literature on definition of critical thinking and its improvement through writing courses; next I depict the typical political indoctrination of students during communist dictatorship tracing the legacy of mechanic reading and the huge lack of critical discourse even among the academic staffs themselves; later on I discuss the contemporary academic focus being placed upon the need of critical academic writing to prepare independent thinkers successful to face the democratic transition. Finally, and most importantly, I offer substantial suggestions and recommendations how to implement successfully the Western Academic writing tradition in the higher education curricula by taking into consideration Albania’s educational legacy.</p>

Japanese EFL learners’ sentence processing of conceptual plurality: An analysis focusing on reciprocal verbs

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
YU TAMURA ◽  
JUNYA FUKUTA ◽  
YOSHITO NISHIMURA ◽  
YUI HARADA ◽  
KAZUHISA HARA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Japanese Learners

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to investigate how Japanese learners of English as a foreign language, whose first language does not have obligatory morphological number marking, process conceptual plurality. The targeted structure was reciprocal verbs, which require conceptual plurality to interpret their meanings correctly. The results of a sentence completion task confirmed that participants could use reciprocal verbs reciprocally in English. In a self-paced reading experiment, participants read sentences with reciprocal verbs and those with optionally transitive verbs (e.g., while the king and the queen kissed/left the baby read the book in the bed). There was no reading time delay for reciprocal verbs but a delay for optionally transitive verbs. Therefore, the participants succeeded in processing second language conceptual plurality in the online sentence comprehension task.

scholarly journals Differential effects of instruction on the development of second language comprehensibility, word stress, rhythm, and intonation: The case of inexperienced Japanese EFL learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukie Saito ◽  
Kazuya Saito
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Experimental Group

The current study examined in depth the effects of suprasegmental-based instruction on the global (comprehensibility) and suprasegmental (word stress, rhythm, and intonation) development of Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Students in the experimental group ( n = 10) received a total of three hours of instruction over six weeks, while those in the control group ( n = 10) were provided with meaning-oriented instruction without any focus on suprasegmentals. Speech samples elicited from read-aloud tasks were assessed via native-speaking listeners’ intuitive judgments and acoustic analyses. Overall, the pre-/post-test data showed significant gains in the overall comprehensibility, word stress, rhythm, and intonation of the experimental group in both trained and untrained lexical contexts. In particular, by virtue of explicitly addressing first language / second language linguistic differences, the instruction was able to help learners mark stressed syllables with longer and clearer vowels; reduce vowels in unstressed syllables; and use appropriate intonation patterns for yes/no and wh-questions. The findings provide empirical support for the value of suprasegmental-based instruction in phonological development, even with beginner-level EFL learners with a limited amount of second-language conversational experience.

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