Utilization of Facebook as a Supplemental Tool in Developing English Communication Skills: Basis for a Proposed Syllabus in Purposive Communication

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randymax M. Bulaquit ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Usage Level ◽  
The University ◽  
Listening And Speaking

Most studies show that students use Facebook as a powerful tool for social interaction, and English language learning purposes. The study aimed to assess and present empirical data on the students’ perceptions on the acceptability and usage level of Facebook as a communication tool in developing English communication skills and to identify possible variables that could initiate programs on how students maximize study time in connection with Facebook’s usage. The majority of the respondents used Facebook daily in learning English reading, writing, listening and speaking. Respondents have moderately agreed that Facebook can be used as a supplemental tool in developing communication skills in reading, writing, and listening but slightly agreed on speaking. There was no significant difference in the extent of usage and the results of the communication skills test in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The correlation between perception and performance for listening skills was positively very weak while performance in writing and reading skills was positively weak. However, the correlation between perception and performance for speaking skills was negatively weak. Lastly, the majority of the respondents have encountered problems in using Facebook, such as in inappropriateness of comments, pictures, or videos posted on Facebook, slow Internet connection outside and within the university, and lack of security and validity of information.

Perfecting Communication Skills of the Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dr. Neeta Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Listening And Speaking

Abstract Communication is a process of sharing information through speech, writing, gestures or symbols between two or more people. The focus of the present paper is oral communication and the language under consideration is English. The teacher should adopt a student centered approach. The learners should be encouraged to do things in the class which result in developing their communication skills. The trainer has to focus on both the linguistic and paralinguistic features of the communication process while enhancing learners’ communication skills. These features involve the effective use of words, forming grammatically intelligible sentences and an appropriate use of voice and intonation. The teacher should encourage and train his students to use positive body language while listening and speaking. In order to hone the communication skills of the learners, it is very important to make the learners comfortable with the language they have to communicate in. Shedding their inhibitions is also one of the pivotal areas of concerns. This paper explores different techniques that could be useful while training students in communication skills. Communication is a process of sharing information through speech, writing, gestures or symbols between two or more people. The focus of the present paper is oral communication and the language under consideration is English. The major elements of a communication process are sender, receiver, message and feedback. Effective communication is a two way process. It involves both expressive (speaking) skills and receptive (listening) skills. It entails receiver’s understanding of the message sent by the sender and his feedback to the sender. Listening plays a very important role in the language learning process. It is the most primary of the four basic skills of any language i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Listening paves way for speaking. One can never be a good speaker if one is not a good listener. An effective communicator is first a good listener and then a good speaker. According to Tickoo ( 2003 ), ‘Good listening skills not only lay the foundations of good speech, but they grow best through effective communication’.

The University Student’s Motivation Level on Learning English

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Esmira Mehdiyev ◽  
Celal Teyyar Uğurlu ◽  
Gonca Usta
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
T Test ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Personal Use ◽  
Motivation Level ◽  
Motivation Scale ◽  
The University

This study aims to determine the university students’ level of motivation in terms of different variables. A study group of this research has been designed through one of the non-random sampling methods, Using appropriate sampling, 606 students from Faculty of Education of C.U. have been involved in this study. Motivation scale in English Language Learning developed by Mehdiyev,Usta,Uğurlu (2015) was used as an instrument of data collection. T-test and one - way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to resolve problems of this research. As a result of the research the motivation level of university students hasn’t been revealed significantly different regarding to the gender variable. However, considering the t-test results of motivation scale dimensions, confidence, attitude and personal use, significant difference is seen in favour of women in personal use dimension. The level of language learning motivation of female students is higher than men’s regarding to personal use dimension. However, men’s and women’s views don’t differ significantly in attitude and confidence dimensions. University students don’t present significant differences in terms of birth place, parent’s education level, total motivation scores and confident, attitude and personal dimensions. Students’ motivation levels are seen not to be influenced by the places such as village, provision or city where they have spent the most of their lifetime. At the same time the findings revealed that parental status variable in terms of primary, secondary and university graduates has no effects on students’ motivation.

scholarly journals Dynamic Assessment in the EFL Classroom: The Case of Listening Comprehension

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Hamza Alshenqeeti ◽  
Grami Mohammad A. Grami
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Dynamic Assessment ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The University

The current study evaluates the potential of dynamic assessment (DA) in listening comprehension classes. DA is based on the sociocultural aspect of the Vygotskyan theory. It facilitates language improvement because DA assumes that mental instruments mediate psychological exercises. Although DA has been extensively analyzed, few studies have investigated its impact on listening comprehension in the language classroom. This study intends to fill the research gap in listening comprehension studies using DA as a mediation tool. The purpose of the current study therefore is to assess the effects of dynamic assessment on listening comprehension. A total of fifty-six English as a foreign language (hereinafter EFL) learners took part in the present examination. The subjects took a general placement proficiency test developed by the English Language Centre within the university to ensure participant homogeneity. The researcher recorded pre-test and post-test results of the participants and coded the values quantitatively. Data management and analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA to test reliability and validity. The relevance of DA in enhancing listening comprehension is clearly supported by the fact that DA students’ results outperformed their counterparts in the study. The study findings also indicated a need for language educators to utilise mediation techniques in order to enhance students’ listening skills.  Educators are advised to apply more DA approaches to mitigate student resistance to classroom instructions. These discoveries underscore the efficacy of DA and suggest its inclusion in the language-learning curriculum.

scholarly journals Implementing E+VE at the University of Bordeaux within English for specific purposes courses

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-190
Author(s):  
Laüra Hoskins ◽  
Alexandra Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Local Area ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Content Learning ◽  
The University

This case study reports on an Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange (E+VE) course at the University of Bordeaux. VE enables students to develop communication skills in an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) environment (Helm, 2016; Kohn & Hoffstaedter, 2017). The present study reports on student language and content learning experiences through E+VE, where L2 users of English interacted with a more culturally diverse group of peers than they would likely meet in their local area. Our students’ perspectives echo the E+VE impact report (Helm & Van Der Velden, 2019) and place a particular emphasis on English language learning outcomes.

scholarly journals Exploring the importance of soft and hard skills as perceived by IT internship students and industry: A gap analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Patacsil ◽  
Christine Lourrine S. Tablatin
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Internship Experience ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The University

The research paper proposes a skills gap methodology that utilized the respondent experiences in the internship program to measure the importance of the Information Technology (IT) skills gap as perceived by IT students and the industry. The questionnaires were formulated based on previous studies,  however,  was slightly modified, validated and pilot tested  to fit into the needs of the research.  Respondents  of this study were IT students enrolled in internship while industry respondents were the supervisors of the IT students in their respective company.  Internship IT students were selected since they have a strong background on the needs of the company based on their internship experience. The findings revealed that teamwork and communication skills are very important soft skills to be possessed by IT graduates  as perceived by the respondents.  Further, results reveal that there was no significant difference in the perception of the respondents in terms of the  importance of soft skills. However, this finding contradicts the results in the case of hard skills were in there was a big range of disagreement on the importance of hard skills.   IT students perceived that hard skills were very important while industry perceived hard skills were somewhat important. It is recognized that soft  skills are very important communication tool for a customer oriented industry and  that  it is essential to enhance the communication skills of IT students for their future employment. The study suggests that the university should target improvements of soft skills and specific personality development component in the curriculum.

scholarly journals Intensifying Language Learning Through Practice: Role-Play and The Perceptions of Japanese Medical- Related Profession Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faramarz Samifanni
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Language Study ◽  
The University

This article presents a descriptive mixed study regarding the perceptions of university medical-related profession students towards role-playing and their confidence in communication. Students' perception towards role-playing was determined by an open-ended questionnaire while their most important consideration in language study was measured through a seven-point Likert scale. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data while descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Out of the 144 students from all the classes, 117 medical-related profession students participated in the study. Results showed that role-playing helped the students gain confidence through frequent practice of the target language. Moreover, role-playing showed improvement in the medical-related students’ oral communication skills including their non-verbal communication skills. Furthermore, the students consider practicing the target language as the most important consideration in language study. The results indicate that this study can provide substantial data towards a new approach and a paradigm shift in English language education at the university level; from grammar focused instruction to communicative approach.

Tertiary English-majored Students’ Perceptions toward the Role of Pronunciation in English Language Learning and their Practicing Strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-279
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The University

Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020

Attitudes toward the use of TELL tools in English language learning among Vietnamese Tertiary English majors

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-596
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Guided Learning ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Very High ◽  
Different Levels

Technology plays a crucial role in the self-guided learning of a second language in general and English in particular. Nevertheless, many students in different contexts still ignore the application of technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) tools in enhancing their foreign language proficiency. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the attitudes towards the use of TELL tools in English-language learning (ELL) among English majors at one university in Vietnam. To collect data, 197 English majors participated in finishing the questionnaire, and 20 students were invited to join the interviews. The findings are that the majority of students have positive attitudes towards the use of TELL tools and the frequency of using these tools is very high. In addition, the results also reveal that there is no significant difference in attitudes towards and frequency of using TELL tools in learning English in terms of the year of study. However, students of different levels of academic achievements have different attitudes towards using TELL tools and use TELL tools to learn English differently. Received 2nd May 2019; Revised 16th July 2019, Accepted 20th October 2019

scholarly journals Students' Perception on Blended Learning in English Listening and Speaking Class

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Kartikasari Tandy Rerung
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Face To Face Learning ◽  
Communicative Teaching ◽  
Listening And Speaking

<p>Nowadays, the communicative teaching has been influenced by the development of technology. Becoming interactive teacher would not be enough if it is not supported by technology usage. Online learning in this case has been a powerful tool to help language learners during their learning progress.  It is said that that online instruction raised the good and average student’s reading performance and the performance of the lowest-performing as well. In listening and speaking, online learning can help students improve their pronunciaton as well the comprehension skill. Therefore, the following study is designed to find out the students’ perceptions towards the use of both online and face-to-face learning in listening and speaking classroom. There are 30 students from the 1<sup>st</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> semester of English Language and Culture Departement and they joined the class for 1 semester. Online learning platform used was taken from Cambridge Learning Management System integrated with Unlock 2 and Unlock 4 books as the source of learning. The result shows that most of the students see online learning as an alternative tool to help them during their learning process.<strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong>blended learning, online learning, face-to-face learning, language learning

scholarly journals Autonomous English Language Learning Beyond the Classroom: Indonesian Tertiary Students’ Practices and Constraints

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 194-213
Author(s):  
Daflizar Daflizar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
English Major ◽  
Attention To Students

. In response to the interest in learner autonomy in recent years, educational research has been increasingly paying attention to students’ out-of-class autonomous learning activities. This study aims to (1) describe the extent to which Indonesian tertiary students engaged in autonomous English language learning outside the class, (2) explore their perceived constraints in practicing autonomous learning, and (3) examine whether there are any significant differences in the autonomous learning activities between female and male students and between the English major students and non-English major students. Employing the explanatory mixed-method design, a total of 402 first-year students completed a questionnaire, and 30 of whom were interviewed. The questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests, and the interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results showed that the students did engage in several out-of-class English learning activities, however many of the activities were more receptive than productive. The interviews echoed the questionnaire results, and the students claimed that they were not autonomous in their learning due to several constraints. The results also revealed that there is no significant difference in the level of practice of autonomous out-of-class activities based on gender but a significant difference was found concerning majors of study. Practical implications for the Indonesian context are put forward.

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