Script Familiarity and Its Effect on CAPTCHA Usability

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashraf Khalil ◽  
Salam Abdallah ◽  
Soha Ahmed ◽  
Hassan Hajjdiab
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
User Study ◽  
Research Area ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Interactive Proofs ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
New Research ◽  
Human Interactive Proofs

Many web-based services such as email, search engines, and polling sites are being abused by spammers via computer programs known as bots. This problem has bred a new research area called Human Interactive Proofs (HIP) and a testing device called CAPTCHA, which aims to protect services from malevolent attacks by distinguishing bots from human users. In the past decade, researchers have focused on developing robust and safe HIP systems but have barely evaluated their usability. To begin to fill this gap, the authors report the results of a user study conducted to determine the extent that English language proficiency affects CAPTCHA usability for users whose native language is not English. The results showed a significant effect of participants’ English language proficiency level on the time the participant takes to solve CAPTCHA, which appear to be related to multiple usability issues including satisfaction and efficiency. Yet, they found that English language proficiency level does not affect the number of errors made while entering CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA. The authors’ results have numerous implications that may inform future CAPTCHA design.

scholarly journals The Comparative Effect of Teaching Concept Mapping in Reading on Extrovert and Introvert EFL Learners' Self-Regulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Mania Nosratinia ◽  
Fatemeh Abbasi
Keyword(s):  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Teaching Concept ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Pre Treatment

The present study attempted to compare the effect of teaching concept mapping in reading on extrovert and introvert English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' Self-Regulation (SR). The participants were 60 female EFL learners at the intermediate level of English language proficiency, between 18 and 20 (Mage = 19). The Preliminary English Test was employed in order to select homogeneous participants in terms of English language proficiency level, followed by administering Eysenck's Personality Inventory (1985). The language-wise homogeneous introvert (n = 30) and extrovert (n = 30) participants were assigned randomly into two experimental groups of 30. To identify the pre-treatment and post-treatment levels of participants' SR, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (1991) was administered twice. The two groups were instructed using the same material and implementing Harris and Graham’s (1996) concept mapping instruction model. The analysis of the scores using an Independent-Samples t-Test revealed that extrovert participants exhibited a significantly higher SR level as a result of being exposed to concept mapping. The study concludes with a discussion on the obtained results and the probable reasons leading to them, followed by presenting some implications for EFL teachers, learners, and syllabus designers. 

scholarly journals Relationship between Teachers’ Competency Level in Teaching English Language and Students’ English Language Proficiency in Secondary Schools in Rwanda

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 104-122
Author(s):  
Girimbabazi Serge ◽  
◽  
Mrs Adegoke Oyebimpe ◽  
Dr. Hesbon Opiyo Andala ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
English Language Teachers

The improvement of students’ English proficiency depends on the level of teaching English language and the competency of teachers in teaching career. The purpose of this study therefore, was to investigate the relationship between teachers’ competency in English language and students’ English language proficiency within secondary schools of Karongi in Rwanda. The study adopted correlation research design research design. Data collection tools were questionnaire and interview guide. The target population was 1794 people comprised of 1560 students, 14 Sector Education Officers, 20 Head Teachers, 200 teachers. A simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used to get a sample size of 395 respondents. The study findings revealed that majority of the students with a total of 290 (91.2%) agreed that in their school, teachers are not competent enough in English language. Moreover, almost 292 (91.8%) of the respondents agreed that in their school, students English reading, writing, listening and speaking proficiency level is low and 70 (90.9%) of key informants agreed that both in public and private secondary schools of Karongi District, students’ English language proficiency level in reading, writing, speaking and listening is low. The correlation results showed the association between between teachers’ inability to teach in English, teachers’ inability to read classroom interactions in English language, teachers’ incompetency in English language, teachers’ inability to express themselves in English language as well as teachers’ inability to develop English language educational materials) and dependent variables (students’ reading, writing, speaking and listening English language proficiency and students’ English language proficiency (reading, writing, speaking and listening English proficiency) is positive. The study recommended the Ministry of Education through Rwanda Basic Education Board to avail enough English teaching and learning materials, including charts, textbooks and dictionaries which are adequate in enhancing English language proficiency mastery among students at an early age. All stakeholders of the education sector are recommended to support English teaching and learning activities in Rwanda, as it is the only and one shortcut for making Rwandans master the English language. Keywords: Teachers’ competency, English Language, English proficiency, Rwanda

scholarly journals English language proficiency level of Higher Secondary level students in Nepal

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Keshab Kumar Sijali
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Language Proficiency Test ◽  
Academic Year

The objective of this study is to investigate the proficiency level of English language of higher secondary level students in Nepal regarding their gender, nature of institution, medium of instruction and stream. The subject of this study comprises 529 learners from 22 higher secondary school of academic year 2015/6 among whom an English language proficiency test was conducted. The data obtained were analyzed using mean, Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis H-test of non-parametric test. The result showed that the English language proficiency level of higher secondary level students in Nepal was poor (M = 10.4490). Regarding the gender, the result showed that there was no statistically significant difference between female and male ELT students in their English language proficiency level. However, ELT students of government higher secondary level were found statistically significantly less proficient in English language than that of private higher secondary level .Similarly, the Nepali medium ELT students were found statistically significantly highly less proficient in English language than that of English medium. The result further showed that there was statistically significant difference in the English language proficiency level of higher secondary level students in Nepal from different streams

scholarly journals Parents’ Educational Level and Children’s English Language Proficiency

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Simin Jalili
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
University Education ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Desire To Have Children ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Role Of Parents

The expansion of the English Language utilization, the concept of Lingua Franca, and the English language proficiency’s role in children’s social and vocational future, make children’s learning English a vital affair for parents all around the world. Minding the role of parents’ educational level is an understudied issue in children’s English language proficiency level. To address this unexpected topic, the purpose of this study is finding the relationship between parents’ educational level and children’s English language proficiency. For this study, the researcher gave a TOEFL test (for evaluating the children’s English language proficiency) and a questionnaire (for determining their parents’ educational level) to eighty participants both female and male who are in their twenties and thirties. They were students in Intermediate and Upper Intermediate level in Gatt Language Center (GLC) in Tehran. After collecting the data the researcher considered each participant’s score two times: First regarding to their fathers’ educational level, second regarding to their mothers’ educational level. The researcher ran Independent Sample t-Test for differentiation between children whose parents have university education and children whose parents do not have university education. This study showed that children whose mothers have university education have higher level of English language proficiency. But there is no significant difference of English language proficiency level between children whose fathers have university education and those whose fathers do not have university education. In accordance with this study, unlike fathers’, mothers’ educational level, especially university education, could affect children’s English language proficiency level. So all parents especially mothers who desire to have children with high English language proficiency level, should take the prominence of their own educational level into account.

Challenges in Implementing the CEFR in English Language Classrooms

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
Nur Athirah Mohammed ◽  
Abdul Halim Abdul Raof ◽  
Masdinah Alauyah Md Yusof
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
English Language Teachers

The adoption of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in the English Language Education Roadmap 2015-2025 is a reform effort to enhance the standard of our students’ English language proficiency level. While it is a commendable initiative, its implementation in schools has received mixed reactions especially from teachers who are confronted with a number of challenges. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate the nature of challenges encountered by English language teachers in implementing the CEFR in their classrooms. Data for this study were collected from questionnaires gathered from 117 English language teachers in primary schools in Johor Bahru district. The findings revealed the challenges were related to teachers’ English language proficiency level, designing class activities, students’ participation in class, the textbooks used, teachers’ workload, and students’ proficiency level. The challenges were found to be inter-related and could be traced to lack of CEFR-related training, insufficient teaching and learning materials, constraint of time, and the policy which does not allow for students to be streamed based on their proficiency level. All this seemed to make it more difficult for the teachers to implement the CEFR successfully.

Listener Proficiency and Shared Background Effects on the Accentedness, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility of Four Varieties of English

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards ◽  
Mary L. Zampini ◽  
Caitlin Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Speech Characteristics ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of Hong Kong listeners’ English language proficiency on the intelligibility and perceived accentedness and comprehensibility of speakers of English from Hong Kong, China, Singapore and the United States. The study had two main aims: (1) to examine how proficiency impacts listeners’ perceptions of how accented and comprehensible different varieties of English are and how this differs from speech intelligibility; (2) to examine whether listeners benefited from a shared background effect differently by proficiency level. The research findings have pedagogical implications as they can improve understanding of which proficiency levels may benefit most from instruction and how a shared background may mitigate proficiency effects. They also help researchers understand the extent to which listeners’ own English proficiency impacts their evaluations of the speech characteristics of other speakers of English, an area of research that is still relatively unexplored.

The Influence of Content Familiarity, Gender Difference and Proficiency Level on Reading Comprehension Performance: A Study on Malaysian Undergraduate Students in UPM

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Waseem Alkelani ◽  
Hadina Habil
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
The Other ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Content Familiarity ◽  
Malaysian Students

Much research has been done on the influence of several variables individually on Reading comprehension, but the influence of these variables as a whole was not given much attention. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between reading comprehension as a dependent variable and three independent variables namely: gender differences, English language proficiency level and content familiarity. An additional goal was to examine the interrelation between the three independent variables. The participants were 127 male and female Malaysian students attending English language proficiency classes at the English language department in University Putra Malaysia (UPM). The study employed a quantitative approach and the data was collected through a questionnaire which was of three main parts: two reading passages (one is content-familiar and the other one is content- unfamiliar texts) and a written interview. All participants were asked to answer the whole survey and then they were classified on the basis of their proficiency level and gender. The major findings revealed that there was a direct relation between content familiarity and reading comprehension while there was an indirect relation between each of gender differences and English language proficiency level on one side and reading comprehension on the other side.

scholarly journals The Effect of English Language Proficiency Level on Undergraduate Libyan Students’ Use of Subject Verb Agreement

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Eman A. Elmejie Elmejie ◽  
Fatima M. Elzawawi ◽  
Amel M. Msimeer
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Third Person

This study aims to examine the proficiency level of Libyan EFL (English as a Foreign Language) undergraduate students in terms of the types of subject-verb agreement errors they commit. It also attempts to identify, analyze and categorize the frequency errors related to subject-verb agreement into three categories. These errors are statically analyzed and classified into: subject-verb agreement (SVA) errors with third person singular subjects (TPSS), with third person plural subjects (TPPS), with compound subjects (CS). The participants of this study were 40 intermediate and advanced students whose major is English at the Faculty of Arts in Misurata University, Libya. They were chosen based on their level of English language proficiency during the current study. The data of this study were collected through a written test consisting of six short passages. The results showed that the percentage of errors made by both groups was below 30% which refers to non-significant differences among the two groups with respect to the SVA errors made by them. Consequently, it can be concluded that language proficiency has little effect on the participants' use of the SVA rule. It was also found that subject-verb agreement errors with (TPPS) were the least frequent, and the most common errors committed were (CS) and (TPSS). This study is important for EFL teachers to be aware of the subject verb agreement errors that their target learners commonly produce. The implications for SLA research and classroom teaching practice are given for foreign language teachers and researchers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document