scholarly journals The Effect of English Access Microscholarship Program on Developing Speaking Skill From Graduate Students’ Perspectives at the King Abdallah II for Excellence School in Zarqa-Jordan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Waleed Ayyad Al-Soufi

The primary concern of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of English Access Microscholarship Program on developing the English Language Speaking Skill from the perspective of graduate students at the King Abdallah II for Excellence in Zarqa in the academic years from 2016 to 2020. The study also examined if Access Program encourages and motivates EFL learners to improve their speaking skills. In this study, the researcher designed a questionnaire consisting (40) items measuring students` perspectives towards the effect of Access program in improving their speaking ability. The subjects of the research were 60 homogenous students aged 14 to 19. Students consisting three classes; FY14, FY15 and FY16 respectively. Each class had 20 students studying at King Abdallah II for Excellence School in the Directorate of Education in Zarqa, Jordan. The results revealed that the overall degree of the students’ perspectives towards the effect of access program was high in improving their speaking skill and improved the participants` speaking skill. Moreover, the findings revealed that there were no statistically significant differences among students in their perspectives towards the effect of access program on developing their speaking skill. Finally, the researcher recommended that further studies should be conducted to measure the impact of access program in developing the four language skills (Listening, speaking, reading and writing).

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor Hanim Rahmat ◽  
Nor Syahiza Shahabani ◽  
Irma Wahyuny Ibrahim

Plato once said “a wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool speaks because he has to say something!” Often the ability to speak (or not) is used to gauge a person’s language proficiency. Speaking is one of the four language skills which includes listening, reading and writing. However, of all the four skills, the first skill that is portrayed is a person’s speaking skills. A person’s speaking skills (or lack of it) is often used by future employers to evaluate the oral communication abilities of their employees. This is because speaking has many different functions and failure to understand the varying functions may lead to anxiety among the speakers. This pilot study is done to investigate the usage of the English language in undergraduates’ interaction and transaction in their everyday lives, their speaking performances and their speaking anxiety. Data is analysed using SPSS and presented in the form of mean scores. Findings for interaction and transaction showed that English is used during formal transaction. In addition to that, the discussion on academic matters is a necessity to speak English. Next, findings for performance revealed that no matter how good or poor their achievement in this second language, speakers have to make it happen – this is one of the challenges that the speakers have to face. Lastly, the speaking anxiety may impact their (speakers) interaction with other people. Results of this study bear interesting implications towards the acquisition and learning of speaking in English among learners. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0736/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-285
Author(s):  
Queen Ugochi Njemanze ◽  
Mark chitulu Ononiwu

The primary language skills; listening and speaking skills are interrelated and unique language activities embedded in communication.The basic need for humans to engage in communication involves having a comprehensive knowledge and command of the language skills; listeneing, speaking, reading and writing. The processes of listening and speaking form the major focus of attention in this research. It require the individuals involved to speak eloquently and listen attentively. It makes them think critically, react confidently and respond appropriately to a communication programme. This paper therfore aims at highlighting listening and speaking skills as language skills that promote proficiency in English language communicaiton. Thus study discovered that the combinations of these skills consolidates the meaning in syllabications, stress and intonation in a communication program and as well reduce the complexities of effective communication.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Yulia Hapsari ◽  
Esti Junining ◽  
Devinta Puspita Ratri

Issues related to the need of English at higher education continue to be a discussion among scholars. Many believe that there is a positive relationship between English language skills of university students and their academic performance, and that English language skills are highly valued as a graduate attribute for employability. However, there are still few actions taken to gain information regarding which specific English language skills needed by educators and academic support staff. Universitas Brawijaya (UB) as one of the prominent higher education institutions in Indonesia is continuously taking actions to keep improving the quality of its graduates. One of the actions is to help its students to have a decent level of English language skills in order to help them to be ready to compete in work market that is going global. To reveal English language skills needed by bachelor graduates of the university as well as the reasons behind the need, sets of questionnaire were distributed to the educators in this case represented by the deans and academic support staff and the heads of academic support units both in the faculty and university level. The data from the questionnaires were then analyzed qualitatively. The findings of this study demonstrated that the educators need Reading and Writing skills more than the other two skills. This finding supports the idea that reading and writing skills are desperately needed to increase the number of publication in UB. Different from this result, the academic support staff perception on the need of English for the employees is on speaking skills. They think that speaking skills are the most needed skills for the employees to be able to handle the guest, and as a speaker of the units.Keyword: need of English, English language skills, higher education


Author(s):  
Bandar Mohammad Saeed Al-Sobhi ◽  
Abdul Shakour Preece

Of the four English language skills, speaking enjoys a superior status. Accordingly, it should be given high priority while teaching. In spite of its importance, teaching English speaking skill to Arab EFL learners has always been an exacting task for Arab teachers of English because it is considered a foreign language, i.e. not widely spoken or used in everyday interactions. For such a reason, Arab teachers of English are required to persistently implement new teaching strategies to tackle the problems regarding speaking skills in the classroom. Although a number of studies have been carried out to investigate the difficulties related to teaching English language skills to the Arab students in the Arab World, the current study is regarded the first study which highlights the problems in learning and teaching English speaking skill in the Saudi School in Kuala Lumpur where English is actively spoken as a second language. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the common problems which affect the teaching of English speaking skills to the Arab learners in the Saudi School in Kuala Lumpur. Additionally, it aims at exploring the areas of difficulty that prevent the Arab students from learning to speak in the English classes. This research also scrutinises the role of Kuala Lumpur ESL context on the Arab students’ English language speaking skills. The current study adheres to qualitative method, and its data were collected via classroom observations and face-to-face interviews with four teachers of English and four students selected purposively. Findings included areas like learning and teaching difficulties. The study suggested some techniques to improve the teaching quality and enable the students to overcome their lack of speaking ability such as implementing communicative approach in the English classes.      


Author(s):  
Martini Martini

As a part of dissertaion research entitled “Developing A Model Of Business English Teaching Material For Students Of Politeknik Negeri Padang”. This article tells about the needs of Business English in workplaces from the graduate students persperctive. The information gottten can be used as inputs is designing Business English curriculum which in based on Link and Match concept between the needs of workplaces and educational institutions. A survey was done by spreading online questionnaires by using Google drive to the graduates of accounting department, who work for some companies in Indonesia. By using descriptive analysis, finding of the research obtains an overview that four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are very impportant in business communication. It menas that they must be taught in Business English class. Next, it is also obtained that grammar, vocabulary, pronounciation, and translation are also very important to be taughy. Besides, this study can determine some business topics that are needed for Business English class.


Author(s):  
Marianthi Batsila ◽  
Charilaos Tsihouridis

This paper looks into what Junior High School learners think of the Web 2.0 tool “Storyboard” for digital story telling purposes and investigates the extent to which it can enhance their receptive and productive skills of reading and writing in the English language. Fifty one randomly selected students, who created a digital story based on a relevant instructive scenario, and their teachers took part in the research. The quantitatively analyzed teachers’ and students’ interviews results and learners’ post-tests data revealed that the tool is considered very motivating and useful increasing learners’ aforementioned English language skills. As learners and teachers indicate “Storyboard” has offered them moments of happiness and joy during their school activities and made their lesson creative and interesting.


Author(s):  
Putri Karya Dwi Bawanti ◽  
Yudhi Arifani

This study focused on the impact of using the Zoom application on mobile phones by examining students' perceptions of speaking skills and their attitude during online learning. The students have 4 months of experience using the Zoom application. This research method used a survey design and collects data by giving 12 questionnaire items through Google form to students. The participants are elementary school students with 3 categories, namely grade 4, grade 5 and grade 6 at Ban Loeiwangsai school, Thailand. The findings of this study are that the strategic design of online learning on the use of the Zoom application has an impact on students performance in independent learning and managing time. This also has an impact on the ability and knowledge of students learning English especially in the speaking skill. Their academics are particularly affected by the use of the Zoom application during online learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol IV (III) ◽  
pp. 535-543
Author(s):  
Shahida Naz ◽  
Mamuna Ghani ◽  
Shahid Nawaz

The field of digital literacy is developing rapidly; consequently, the interest of researchers has also shifted now. The current research study was to explore the role of online learning Apps available on smartphones in improving graduate students' English language proficiency. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study. Data were collected through a questionnaire that had close-ended and open-ended questions. Questionnaires were distributed among 480 graduate-level students studying in 6 universities of Punjab, Pakistan. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0) to find out results in the form of Percentage, Mean Score, Standard Deviation by applying the Independent Sample T-Test. The results of the study demonstrated the potential of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) as an anticipatory approach to improving English language skills. Results showed that students were pleased to use smartphones to improve their English language proficiency. They responded positively about the role of smartphones in improving English language skills. On the basis of findings, the researcher concluded that smartphone plays an important role in improving students' English language proficiency.


2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 4.1-4.17
Author(s):  
Neomy Storch ◽  
Kathryn Hill

There is a common expectation, particularly amongst international students, that studying in an English-medium university should automatically produce a significant improvement in their English language skills. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that this is not necessarily the case.This paper reports on a study which investigated the impact of one semester of study at a university on the English language proficiency of a sample of 40 international students. This was measured by comparing the students’ scores on a diagnostic English language test at the beginning and end of their first semester. A comparison of discourse measures of writing in terms of fluency, complexity and accuracy was also undertaken. Background information, including details of ESL support, if any, was collected for all participants via questionnaires, and interviews were conducted with a subset of the participants.It was found that studying in an English-medium university generally led to an improvement in English language proficiency. The paper identifies a number of factors which appear to support language development, as well as factors that may inhibit it.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Mandana Yousefi

<p><em>The present study was an attempt to examine the EFL intermediate learners’ interpretation performance in translating texts from English to Persian on mediated mode vs. non-mediated one focusing on two different kinds of mediation (clip-mediated vs. peer-mediated mode). It has also investigated the participants’ attitudes toward the mediation sessions. It was conducted in an English Language Institute in Bojnourd, Iran. To this aim, a standardized 50-item Nelson English Language Test was administered to 31 participants. Following the homogenizing procedure, the number of the participants decreased to 24. Then, they were randomly divided into two equal groups (control and experimental), each consisting of 12 students. Both groups took part in interpretation classes twice a week, during which the experimental group received mediation as the treatment. The collecte</em><em>d data were analyzed by conducting ANCOVA and paired-sample t-test. </em><em>The results indicated that the EFL learners’ interpretation performance was better in mediated mode vs. non-mediated one, and peer-mediation was more effective than clip-mediation in improving their listening performance. In addition, all the participants stated </em><em>mediation had an effective role in improving their interpretation performance by reducing their anxiety and increasing their self-confidence.</em></p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document