scholarly journals ENHANCING LEARNERS VOCABULARY SKILLS BY MEANS OF ENGLISH SONGS – AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Author(s):  
Ravnil Narayan

<p>In the core of teaching the four macro skills of a language, vocabulary is considered to be the panacea to achieve absolute mastery of the target language. It is considered to be the crucial rudiment towards learning a foreign language and if not mastered in the apt way may lead to a serious impediment on a learner. Therefore, in order to avoid this from happening songs could be considered as a solution to assist the learners’ from having low mastery of English vocabulary. In the day to day communication hearing the songs could be considered as a solution to increase the tendency of awareness in recognising English vocabulary. Hence, this proposed study has intended to examine the use of English songs on learners’ vocabulary mastery skills, which was conducted through an experimental design. In this research, there was one class each that were chosen as research samples. The first one was considered as an experimental group, while later was the control. Each class had thirty students as respondents. Also, there were two variables that consisted of English songs and learners’ vocabulary mastery skills. The sample was randomised and was determined based on independent measures, which was conducted in an intermediate class level at a primary school in Wudaokou district, Beijing, China.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0621/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Author(s):  
Fiona Farr

Within the field of second language acquisition the question of cessation of learning short of the target language norms, particularly among adult populations, has been widely discussed since the term FOSSILIZATION was first coined by Selinker in 1972. This article briefly outlines the main theoretical concerns of this phenomenon, which has had various terminological badges over the past three decades. It then details an experimental study whose aim it was to uncover the destabilizing potential of instruction on the pronunciation of advanced French learners of English as a Foreign Language who displayed fossilization tendencies. The results indicate significant improvements made by the experimental group relative to the control group. In conclusion it is deemed appropriate to classify such learners as stabilized and not permanently fossilized, as changes in pronunciation systems can occur give optimal conditions of learning and exposure.


ReCALL ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
NINETTE CARTES-ENRIQUEZ ◽  
M. I. SOLAR RODRIGUEZ ◽  
R. QUINTANA LETELIER

This is an experimental study in the area of Didactics applied to the learning of English as a foreign language and complemented by CALL. The main objective of this work is to know the degree of incidence existing between two groups of students: one, based on conference-style classes where students, guided by the teacher, have to search for information about a topic in the computer lab and present it in front of the class and, in the other, where students are taught by the teacher according to a printed text. The experimental design consisted of a pre-test/post-test plus the application of different techniques to develop the different linguistic and cognitive strategies, between these tests. The methodology used by the Experimental Group forced learners to generate their own knowledge, so they had to apply the information and work by themselves in Workshops; and the Control Group participated in the classroom according to the communicative approach, guided by the teacher in the traditional class. Statistics were applied to the scores obtained between both tests, and the scores obtained weekly in the different competences contributed to knowing whether there were significant differences between both groups.


EDULANGUE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Jimmi ◽  
Titin Suprihatin

Nowadays in globalization era, being able to communicate in a foreign language is of paramount importance due to its role in seeking for jobs, scholarship, etc. Translation is one of English for Specific Purpose, because is challenging and interesting job to be mastered. Because translation is not an easy work, it needs a serious attention and concentration. It can be said that the core of translation is a transfer a message without any left words missing especially the meaning. The translator shall be careful in replacing the meaning from Source Language to Target Language. In translation, some problems appear like usage of collocation in novel Twilight New Moon. The author mostly uses collocation in the novel.. The translator also translate the novel not only by method word by word, but also the translator uses modulation method and context of sentence. The use of collocation in novel makes reader easy to understand meaning of novel, get the point of message of novel


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Korosidou ◽  
Eleni Griva

This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a  project entitled "It's the same world through different eyes", which was based on the principles of Content and Language Integrated  Learning (CLIL) approach  and  was piloted with 4th primary school grade students. More specifically, we employed a dual-focused approach, focusing equally on English language and content development. For the purpose of the project, we designed a mini-syllabus with the stories being at the core of the design. The objectives of the project were to: a) develop the students’ skills in EFL, b) develop their sensitivity towards diversity, c)enhance their citizenship awareness. Students were provided with opportunities to express themselves verbally and non-verbally, and participate in a variety of creative activities in a multimodal teaching context. The findings of project evaluation indicated students’ improvement regarding both their receptive and productive skills in the target language, and the development of children’s citizenship awareness and their sensitivity towards diversity.


2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Carless

Abstract This article discusses an issue which is of longstanding and central importance to foreign language teachers in a variety of contexts, namely teacher use of classroom language. It uses detailed qualitative case study data to explore how and why an expert practitioner uses English in her Hong Kong Primary school language classroom. Through the interplay between teacher beliefs, experiences and classroom transcript data, the paper develops a contextualised picture of classroom language use with young foreign language learners. The paper suggests that it is not necessarily the language proficiency of the learners which plays a major role in the quantity of target language use, but the teachers’ own proficiency, experience and beliefs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 267-286
Author(s):  
Anna Rita Calavalle ◽  
Riccardo E. Izzo ◽  
Romina Raimondi ◽  
Marco B. L. Rocchi ◽  
Davide Sisti ◽  
...  

Abstract The purpose of this work was to experiment a didactic method to enhance learning of L2 by using psychomotor development in a first class of an Italian primary school. Two fundamental questions were posed at the outset of the project: a) can activities based on psycho-motor tasks enhance target language vocabulary acquisition in a group of first graders?; b) can creating a reggae/hip-hop song, improve pronunciation and retention of basic target language vocabulary? The target sample, consisted of 66 children from first grade, was divided into two groups (control vs experimental group). The protocol contents were taught over a period of 20 weeks and were closely related to those of the program of English. The significance of score differences in the entrance test and the final test was quantified through the analysis of the variance. The analysis of the results showed an improvement in the experimental group compared to the control group with respect to the acquisition and retention of L2 vocabulary. On the other hand, the data regarding pronunciation of the target language vocabulary tell a different story, with no significant difference emerging between the two groups. This experimental project allowed us to verify how physical activity and play, used as the primary teaching tool, can enhance L2 learning in primary school.


2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Marcos Peñate ◽  
Geraldine Boylan

One of the basic conditions required for pupils to learn a foreign language is that their teachers must speak to them in the target language—and always at a level which is understandable to them. The effectiveness of interactional adjustments such as repetitions, comprehension checks, and nonlinguistic aspects used by a teacher to help primary and secondary school pupils with their general understanding of spoken texts delivered in English is analysed in this article. Once the effectiveness of such adjustments is confirmed, a comparison is made between the teacher’s use of adjustments when teaching a group of 10-year-old primary school pupils and when teaching a group of 17-year-old secondary school pupils. 外国語指導の重要な要件の一つとして、当該外国語を指導言語とし、しかもそれを学習者が理解できるレベルで使わなければならないということが挙げられる。そのために教員は学習者とのやり取りの最中、理解の確認、繰り返し、あるいは非言語行動により絶えず調整を行わなければならない。このような調整がどのくらい効果があるのかを、小学校、中学校の授業を観察し分析した。さらに10歳の小学生対象の授業、17歳の中学生対象の授業でどのように違うかをあわせて考察した。


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473
Author(s):  
Mohammad Awad Al-Dawoody Abdulaal

This research study aims at replacing monoglossic approaches with a stego-translanguaging pedagogy (i.e., the indirect use of the mother tongue to enhance the target language perception and acquisition). To solve the problematic constant decline in the learners’ reading and writing IELTS scores in Port Said Language Center and to check the influence of the stego-translanguaging approach, two groups of participants were randomly chosen, an experimental group with 33 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners from different colleges in Port Said University in Egypt and a control group with 30 EFL learners. The participants in the experimental group followed a heteroglossic pedagogy, whereas the control group followed a strictly non-plurilingual monolingual approach. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the stego-translanguaging approach was much more influential in teaching IELTS reading than the monoglossic conventional approach with 1.483 as a mean difference between the two groups as (µ1=7) in the experimental group and (µ2= 5.517) in the control group. Another crucial result was displayed by a parametric test conducted to examine the significant differences between the IELTS writing posttest scores in the experimental and the control groups. The test showed that µ1 > µ2 with an estimation difference of 1.535, where µ1= 6.818 and µ2 = 5.28


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-281
Author(s):  
Maria Nilsson

This study investigates how Swedish learners make sense of and perceive English instruction and the process of foreign language learning in a target language-only primary school classroom. In small group discussions, 26 learners aged 9-10 were audio recorded while discussing questions related to their language learner beliefs and their classroom experiences. Learners expressed a strong consensus about the importance of both the teacher’s extensive target language input and the learners’ oral engagement, in alignment with the beliefs of the teacher. However, the analysis identified three mismatches among high anxiety learners in this context, related to incomprehensible teacher talk, social fear of making mistakes and classroom organization. As their voiced beliefs were at odds with their emotionally guided behavior of refraining from asking questions or volunteering to speak, their sense of agency was reduced. In this context, the target language-only approach appeared to have a negative impact on the emotional, organizational and instructional dimensions of foreign language instruction for many of the young learners. The findings illustrate the interrelated dynamics of beliefs, emotions and classroom context, and contribute to our understanding of learners’ foreign language anxiety and sense of agency in the primary foreign language classroom.


2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 749-761
Author(s):  
Quoc Lap ◽  
Thi Dieu ◽  
Thanh Thao

<p style="text-align: justify;">The effects of international phonetic alphabet (IPA) instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) adult learners’ pronunciation have been well-recognized. However, not many studies on the topic were conducted in the Vietnamese context. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate (1) the impact of IPA learning on Vietnamese EFL adult learners’ pronunciation and (2) adult learners’ perceptions of the effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. The study was designed as an experimental study, following a mixed-methods approach, using the pre-and-post-tests, questionnaires, and interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Thirty-eight adult learners took part in this investigation; they were divided into two groups, nineteen in the control and nineteen in the experimental group. The experimental study lasted ten weeks before the questionnaires and interviews were administered with the participants in the experimental group. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in adult learners’ pronunciation in the experimental group. The participants in the experimental group also highly perceived the positive effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. Pedagogical implications and suggestions were presented at the end of the paper.</p>


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