scholarly journals Effects of Blackboard’s Discussion Boards, Blogs and Wikis on Effective Integration and Development of Literacy Skills in EFL Students

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Alharbi

The evolving digitization of teaching and learning in higher education institutions requires students to be digitally literate (Miller 2015). Despite the echoes of being “digital natives” (Prensky 2001), many EFL students experience difficulties when locating, retrieving, evaluating, and synthesizing digital information at their disposal, especially when the information is in English. To this end, this study is conducted to scrutinize the relationship between EFL students’ second language (L2) digital literacy skills and strategies (DLSs) self-efficacy and their English proficiency level. A total of 93 Saudi students majoring in English at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University were surveyed for their English proficiency level and their abilities to use three major domains of digital literacy skills. The data were analyzed statistically using descriptive measures and ANOVA. The results revealed a significant positive correlation between English proficiency and L2 DLSs. Students with intermediate and upper-intermediate English levels displayed low efficacy in their abilities to navigate, evaluate, and synthesize online information compared to advanced English users. The study concluded that students with higher English proficiency are more responsive to digital literacy skills and can perform well in digitally enhanced environments than basic English users. Pedagogical implications and areas for future research are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Gaston

Media literacy education is a field that is fraught with disagreement over definitions, approaches, principles, and purposes, but teaching media literacy is arguably needed now more than ever before, especially for ESL and EFL students. From the research available, it appears as though many ESL and EFL students are not taught media literacy in their home countries. Additionally, much of the research that does exist in regards to teaching media literacy to ESL and EFL students focuses on forms of media that are no longer relevant to most learners. Since ESL and EFL teachers support the development of their students’ English-language skills, it is justifiable that at least some of the responsibility of media literacy education should fall on their shoulders. The widespread transition to virtual learning as a result of COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity for ESL and EFL teachers to teach media literacy to their students. However, because this period also presents numerous challenges to the public’s collective media literacy skills, it is imperative that teachers integrate media literacy education into their pedagogy. Keywords: media literacy, ESL, EFL, COVID-19


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Tzu-Shan Chang

<p><em>This paper demonstrates the systemic functional approach (SFL) with the L1 rhetorical structure in a genre-based writing class and then examines the effectiveness of this study’s approach in developing Chinese EFL writers’ competence in writing argumentative essays. This EFL writing course follows the SFL approach, the genre-based cycle of teaching and learning, to provide students with repeated opportunities to practice literacy skills gained in previous cycles until they master different genres. The genre-based cycle formed the writing instruction along with the L1 rhetorical structure as a strategy; Chinese EFL sophomores (n = 44) were instructed in this writing class. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected: </em><em>I</em><em>nterviews and ratings of students’ writing from two raters before and after the instruction. The results presented that most participants had made statistically significant progress in their writing competence, particularly in structuring paper. The incorporation of L1 rhetorical structure into the genre-based cycle offered participants a framework to organize their arguments in L2 writing. When EFL students’ home languages/cultures are treated as the resources within the context of a genre-based cycle, their prior knowledge of L1 rhetorical structure transits to more accurate construction of L2 essays.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Mohammad Husam Mohammad Alhumsi

Research has considered phonemic awareness skill as effective pillar in acquiring literacy skills. This skill has been identified as prerequisite for reading success However, little is known about the phonemic awarenessinstruction of Jordanian EFL emergent readers. This study therefore explored the impact of phonemic awareness instruction on word recognition among Jordanian EFL emergent readers.In this study, the research instrument was semi-structured interviews. Seven EFL students of emergent readers were interviewed. They were all first graders aged 7 years on average. Data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicated that there is a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding between the term of phonics and phonemic awareness as well. It has been also found that emergent readers’ views show positive support towards the use of phonemic awareness skill. At the end of the study, some pedagogical implications for curriculum designers as well as English teachers were provided accordingly.


2002 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 934-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Jun Zhang

Research has shown that foreign or second language learners' metalinguistic awareness has important effects on their acquisition of the target language. Important among a multitude of the concerns are problems these learners encounter when they have to process the morphological features of individual words, particularly in the acquisition of literacy skills. Nevertheless, for students who learn English as a foreign of second language for academic purposes, one of the biggest challenges in their advanced study is how they can effectively remember, retain, and retrieve the colossal number of newly learnt English vocabulary, including adjectival lexicons, to enhance their academic success. Results from the present report on the effects of metamorphological awareness of 65 adult Chinese EFL learners' memory, retention, and retrieval of adjectival lexicons show that, although the subjects in the two groups did not differ significantly in their performance on a pretest designed to check their lexical knowledge and no sex difference was observed, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in both conditions (immediate and delayed retrievals) on a posttest. The experimental group and women predominantly performed better in the memory-retention-retrieval tasks assigned to them. Implications for educational research and practices are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-23

Using a qualitative survey research design, researchers solicited faculty input on challenges and common instructional practices applied in teaching online developmental education courses. Online was defined as 80% or more of the instruction of a course being delivered online. Participants of the study were faculty teaching developmental education courses online, primarily in 2-year colleges. They completed an online survey on faculty characteristics and various aspects of teaching online. The most frequently occurring challenges identified by field practitioners included technology issues, student engagement, time management, and basic literacy skills. The most commonly used instructional activities reported were discussion boards, multimedia, offering of feedback and synchronous sessions, and communication. Based on the findings, implications for practice are discussed, which can benefit faculty as they design and deliver online developmental education courses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-820
Author(s):  
Lena G. Caesar ◽  
Marie Kerins

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral language, literacy skills, age, and dialect density (DD) of African American children residing in two different geographical regions of the United States (East Coast and Midwest). Method Data were obtained from 64 African American school-age children between the ages of 7 and 12 years from two geographic regions. Children were assessed using a combination of standardized tests and narrative samples elicited from wordless picture books. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine relationships to and relative contributions of oral language, literacy, age, and geographic region to DD. Results Results of correlation analyses demonstrated a negative relationship between DD measures and children's literacy skills. Age-related findings between geographic regions indicated that the younger sample from the Midwest outscored the East Coast sample in reading comprehension and sentence complexity. Multiple regression analyses identified five variables (i.e., geographic region, age, mean length of utterance in morphemes, reading fluency, and phonological awareness) that accounted for 31% of the variance of children's DD—with geographic region emerging as the strongest predictor. Conclusions As in previous studies, the current study found an inverse relationship between DD and several literacy measures. Importantly, geographic region emerged as a strong predictor of DD. This finding highlights the need for a further study that goes beyond the mere description of relationships to comparing geographic regions and specifically focusing on racial composition, poverty, and school success measures through direct data collection.


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