Across the Four Domains

2018 ◽  
pp. 120-150
Author(s):  
Donna M. Velliaris
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
High School Graduates ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Data Set ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
National Examinations ◽  
Personal Perceptions ◽  
The Voice

In many Asian countries, tertiary education remains a much desired but seemingly unattainable goal for high school graduates, due to rigorous unified national examinations. With that in mind, international students invest millions of dollars annually attempting to enter Australian higher education (HE). Students arrive with high expectations, but in the early stages of their study abroad experience, they face a range of transitional difficulties centered around ‘academic English'. An author-developed semi-structured questionnaire included the open-ended question: In your own words, how would you describe your English language ability in terms of (1) listening, (2) speaking, (3) reading, and (4) writing? The data set collected the ‘voice' of 209 pathway students attending the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT). Their self-reported narratives share personal perceptions of their own English language proficiency across the four domains largely within the context of their enrolment at the institute.

scholarly journals Using Rubrics in A University EFL Process Writing Program: An Exploratory Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamin Qian
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
Writing Programs ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Peer Reviews ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Student Cohorts

While rubrics have been widely recognized as an effective instructional tool for teachers to evaluate students’ writing products, fewer studies explored how students use it for their writing process in an EFL university academic writing classes. This study explores the application of process-oriented rubrics in two EFL writing programs, and investigates whether English language proficiency, motivation to writing, and their previous experiences with writing programs would significantly affect the use of the rubrics. The participants (N=190) were from two student cohorts, each of which had 95 participants. The data set includes students’ self-, peer- use and the instructor’s use of the rubrics, and students’ written reflection upon peer feedbacks. The data showed that the rubrics can guide students to practice a writing process, and that the 20-item rubric was statistically reliable.  The data of rubrics also showed that the participants were more critical on their peers’ writing, and the reflection data showed students’ awareness of revision strategies. The qualitative data seemed to suggest that peer reviews and reflections upon such reviews could enhance students' revision strategies. This article will conclude itself by providing some pedagogical suggestions in EFL contexts

scholarly journals OMANI SCHOOL SUPERVISOR PERSPECTIVES OF CONTEXTUAL FACTORS IMPACTING UPON STUDENTS’ LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
RAHMA AL-MAHROOQI ◽  
CHRISTOPHER DENMAN ◽  
FAISAL AL-MAAMARI
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
School Students ◽  
English Language Skills

Since the beginning of Oman’s “modern era” in 1970, English has assumed a central role in the country’s education system and has acted as a lingua franca across a variety of domains. However, despite this, graduates of Omani public schools are often reported as lacking the English-language linguistic and communicative abilities demanded by higher education institutions and the world of work. Consequently, most high school graduates entering tertiary education are required to enrol in foundation programs to improve their English language skills, while the employability of graduates seeking jobs straight from high school has also been reported as being negatively affected. Within this context, the current research explored the ways in which contextual factors relate to Omani school graduates’ development of English language skills. To achieve this, eight high school English language teaching supervisors responded to an on-line, open-ended question about the contextual factors they believed caused Omani school students to graduate with low English language proficiency. Results indicate that participants believed families, parents, and “Englishness” are the most important contextual factors contributing to this issue. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals English-Medium Instruction in Self-Financing Tertiary Institutions in Hong Kong – Views and Practices from the Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Marine Yeung ◽  
Vic Lu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
British Colony ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
University Lecturers

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a bone of contention in Hong Kong, a former British colony, since its colonial days. Despite the Hong Kong government’s effort to promote the “biliterate and trilingual” language policy, advocating Cantonese, English and Putonghua as the three official spoken languages and emphasizing the importance of literacy in both written Chinese and English, most tertiary institutions today still adopt English as the medium of instruction (EMI). However, with the expansion of tertiary education in the early 1990s and the decline in the general English language proficiency of university students, some university lecturers have found it difficult to teach in English as required. This raises the issue of the practicality of the indiscriminate adoption of the EMI policy at tertiary level, particularly at the self-financing tertiary institutions where students are generally known to have under-performed in the English subject. In order to understand whether or how the EMI policy is upheld in these institutions, focus group interviews were conducted with students from various programmes of five self-financing tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. The findings indicate these students’ strong preference for English-medium instruction with the belief that it can improve their English proficiency, though their actual approaches to coping with the demand on their limited English and how they view and use the three languages in class deserve policy makers’ serious consideration.

scholarly journals Integrating Content and English-Language Learning in a Middle Eastern Information Technology College: Investigating Faculty Perceptions, Practices and Capabilities

10.28945/3449 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Williams ◽  
John Beachboard ◽  
Robert Bohning
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Sharing Responsibility

The expanding role of English as an international lingua franca has had considerable effects on higher education (HE) provision around the world. English has become the medium of choice for African HE, and its position as a medium of instruction in the Europe and Asia is strengthening (Coleman, 2006; HU, 2009). English-medium tertiary education is also commonplace in the Middle East including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the context of the present study, where the vast majority of courses at university-level are conducted in English (Gallagher, 2011). The increasing use of English-medium programs presents particular challenges for content-area faculty who are in effect called upon to provide disciplinary instruction to students who may not be adequately language proficient. Furthermore, discipline-specific faculty may find themselves sharing responsibility to further develop their students’ English language proficiency. Information technology related schools face unique challenges. A significant majority of IT faculty come from computer science/engineering backgrounds and speak English as a second or third language. Most courses emphasize the development of technical skills and afford relatively few opportuni-ties for writing assignments. While exploratory in nature, the study proposes to identify and evaluate practices that can help IT colleges better develop their students’ proficiency in English.

scholarly journals Meeting business students’ English language needs in the Algerian tertiary education

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-139
Author(s):  
Soraya Benzerdjeb
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Government

Graduate Algerian economic sciences students, who will be future university teachers or workplace managers, are urged to use the English language. However, most of them reveal that they are unable to use the English language appropriately. The main aim in this paper is to depict students’ difficulties and help them improve their academic language performance. This paper describes the teaching and learning situations of English for Business and Economics (EBE) in the Department of Economic Sciences at the University of Tlemcen. The investigator used a questionnaire and two structured interviews. The sampling included EBE learners and English for specific purposes teachers as well as workplace managers (former EBE students). The main findings in this investigation confirmed that students had poor target language proficiency. Results revealed that the content of the actual EBE course was inappropriate to learners’ needs. The investigator wants to integrate new technologies as the government supplies digital platforms to the Algerian universities.   Keywords: Algerian, tertiary education, English, Economics, business students.

Why are patients not more involved in their own safety? A questionnaire-based survey in a multi-ethnic North London hospital population

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (1123) ◽  
pp. 266-270
Author(s):  
Wai Yoong ◽  
Zouina Assassi ◽  
Iman Ahmedani ◽  
Rahma Abdinasir ◽  
Max Denning ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Patient Participation ◽  
English Language ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Hospital Data ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Education Status

PurposeActive patient participation in safety pathways has demonstrated benefits in reducing preventable errors, especially in relation to hand hygiene and surgical site marking. The authors sought to examine patient participation in a range of safety-related behaviours as well as factors that influence this, such as gender, education, age and language.DesignA 20-point questionnaire was employed in a London teaching hospital to explore safety-related behaviours, particularly assessing patient’s willingness to challenge healthcare professionals and engagement in taking an active role in their own care while in hospital. Data was also collected on participant demographic details including gender, age, ethnicity, English language proficiency and education status.Results85% of the 175 patients surveyed would consider bringing a list of their medications to hospital, but only 60% would bring a list of previous surgeries. Only 45% would actively engage in the WHO Safer Surgery Checklist and over three quarters (80%) would not challenge doctors and nurses regarding hand hygiene, believing that they would cause offence. Female patients who had tertiary education, were fluent in English and less than 60 years of age were statistically more likely to feel responsible for their own safety and take an active role in safety-related behaviour while in hospital (p<0.05).ConclusionsMany patients are not engaged in safety-related behaviour and do not challenge healthcare professionals on safety issues. Older male patients who were not tertiary educated or fluent in English need to be empowered to take an active role in such behaviour. Further research is required to investigate how to achieve this.

scholarly journals A Propensity Score Method for Investigating Differential Item Functioning in Performance Assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Y. Chen ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Bruno D. Zumbo
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Propensity Score Matching ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Internal Variable ◽  
Propensity Score Method ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Item Functioning

This study introduces a novel differential item functioning (DIF) method based on propensity score matching that tackles two challenges in analyzing performance assessment data, that is, continuous task scores and lack of a reliable internal variable as a proxy for ability or aptitude. The proposed DIF method consists of two main stages. First, propensity score matching is used to eliminate preexisting group differences before the test, ideally creating equivalent groups as in a randomized experimental study. Then, linear mixed effects models are adopted to perform DIF analysis based on the matched data set. We demonstrate this propensity DIF method using a high-stakes functional English language proficiency test. DIF due to education was investigated in the writing component, which consists of two continuously scored performance-based tasks. Although the proposed method is demonstrated in the context of language testing, it can be applied to other types of performance assessments.

How Do Effective Upper Elementary Teachers of English Language Learners Show Support?

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Holland W. Banse ◽  
Natalia A. Palacios ◽  
Anna Martin
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Latino Ells

Background/Context Latino English language learners (ELLs) comprise a rapidly growing portion of the student population, and much empirical attention has been devoted to supporting their English language and literacy proficiency. Less is known about how to support Latino ELLs’ social-emotional needs. Latino ELLs face the dual challenge of learning English and academic content simultaneously; they also may face stigma, anti-immigration sentiment, and deficit perspectives from teachers and peers. Consequently, they may be in especial need of support from their teachers. Research Question This study addresses the question, How do effective teachers show support within upper elementary classrooms with varying levels of English language proficiency? Research Design We employed a multiple and comparative case study approach to answer this question, using videotaped English language arts lessons from the Measures of Effective Teaching data set. We compared how teachers demonstrate supportiveness in three types of fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms: (1) high-ELL and high-gains; (2) no-ELL and high-gains; and (3) high-ELL and low-gains. Conclusion/Recommendations We observed that only high-ELL, high-gains teachers showed supportiveness in the following distinct ways: through contingent and effusive praise, by describing the relevance of content, and by advancing relationships with students. We discussed why these demonstrations of supportiveness may be important, particularly for Latino ELLs. We conclude with ideas for future research and practical implications for teachers and teacher preparation programs.

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