scholarly journals Shadow-Reading Effect on Reading Comprehension: Actualization of Interactive Reading Comprehension: (A Vygotskyan View!)

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elahe Sadeghi ◽  
Akbar Afghari ◽  
Gholam-Reza Zarei
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control

<p>Reading comprehension has been the main concern for second language learners and researchers. Today with rising interests towards Vygotskyan Sociocultural Theory (SCT), attempts have been made to insert Vygotskyan approach into Foreign/Second Language classrooms emphasizing the role of scaffolding and meaningful interactions to promote learners’ comprehension. Having this on mind, the current study used shadow-reading as a means of meaning internalization to see if it affects on reading comprehension. To this end, 52 junior EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. A pretest of reading comprehension including 4 reading passages with 20 Multiple Choice items was administered to the learners to see if they were at the similar level of reading comprehension. During 10 sessions, the learners were provided with shadow-reading strategy in which they were required to listen and repeat the passage in a well-disciplined imitative task and, then summarize what they had comprehended from the text. A reading comprehension post test was also administered at the end of the semester after 10 sessions of conducting shadowing. The data of the first and the last sessions was analysed. The findings of the study showed that shadow-reading has significantly influenced learners’ comprehension. The results also lent support to Vygotskyan theory in that using shadowing as a means of meaningful imitation and interaction facilitates comprehension among learners. The results also shed light on the way through which instructors try to promote learners’ comprehension. It seems that shadow reading due to its sociocultural traits can be used as an appropriate means of promoting reading comprehension all over the world.</p>

scholarly journals Cloze Test and C-test Revisited: Appraising Collocational Competence on Second Language Learners’ Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Mustapha Hajebi ◽  
Hosna Zarei
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Advanced Proficiency ◽  
Cloze Test

The current study tried to investigate the particular role of the text in EFL learners’ performance on three types of tests, i.e. cloze test, C-test and open-ended test. This study aimed at comparing three test types of cloze test, C-test and open-ended test in measuring collocational knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. This was a quantitative research. This type of research placed more emphases on collecting data in the form of numbers. To this end, 84 Persian EFL learners were selected. They were both male and female with intermediate and advanced proficiency groups. The results showed that advanced participants in all of these three tests performed much more efficiently compared to their intermediate peers and indicated more collocational competence. The findings of this study had some implications for language learners, EFL instructors and material developers.

scholarly journals Effective Reading Comprehension in EFL Contexts: Individual and Collaborative Concept Mapping Strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Riahi ◽  
Natasha Pourdana
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Reading Materials ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control ◽  
Collaborative Concept Mapping

The present study attempted to investigate the possible impacts of Individual Concept Mapping (ICM) and Collaborative Concept Mapping (CCM) strategies on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension. For this purpose, 90 pre-intermediate female language learners ranged between 12 to 17 years of age were selected to randomly assign into ICM, CCM and Control groups in this study. After taking Key English Test (KET), the ICM and CCM groups received EFL reading materials presented and practiced with ICM and CCM strategies, respectively, while the Control group received only conventional instructions to reading comprehension. After conducting the treatment, all participants took a Concept Mapping post-test constructed by the researchers. The hypothetical assumptions in this study were in favor of ICM and CCM strategies to improve the Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Statistics supported the outperformance of the ICM and CCM groups comparing to Control group who received convention PPP teaching techniques on Concept Mapping post-test. However, the superiority of neither strategies was statistically proved so that no meaningful difference between the reading comprehension of the ICM and CCM groups were detected. Therefore, the researchers failed to determine which strategy caused a better or higher impact. Some pedagogical implications and recommended topics for further research were provided to the motivated researchers.

scholarly journals The relationship between phonotactic awareness and pronunciation in adult second language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-214
Author(s):  
Hanna Kivistö-de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
L1 English ◽  
L2 Pronunciation

Abstract: This study examined to what extent L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) EFL learners are aware of L2 phonotactics and whether there would be a relationship between L2 phonotactic awareness and L2 pronunciation accuracy. The language learners were tested regarding their awareness of L2 onset consonant clusters with a lexical decision task presenting nonword stimuli with legal and illegal onset clusters. L2 pronunciation was measured with a Foreign Accent Rating Task. The results showed that L1 BP participants showed a high awareness concerning L2 phonotactics, not differing from L1 English speakers, t(86)=.20, p =.83. Furthermore, high phonotactic awareness was found to be related to higher accuracy in L2 pronunciation (r= -.46, p <.001). The results suggest that phonotactics should be taught in foreign language classrooms since increasing learners’ awareness might be beneficial for the accuracy of their L2 pronunciation.

Phonological awareness in young second language learners

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Bruck ◽  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Phoneme Awareness ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Bilingual Group ◽  
English Speaking

ABSTRACTEnglish-speaking children (N = 91) who were attending French schools (bilingual group) were given a battery of phonological awareness tests in kindergarten and in grade 1. At the time of kindergarten testing the mean age of the children was 5:9. Their performance was compared to age-matched English-speaking children (N = 72) attending English schools (monolingual group). The bilingual children showed heightened levels of phonological awareness skills in kindergarten in the area of onset-rime awareness. By grade 1, the pattern of group differences was more complex. The monolingual and bilingual children performed similarly on onset-rime segmentation tasks. The monolingual children had higher phoneme awareness scores than their French-schooled peers; this result is interpreted to reflect the role of literacy instruction on phoneme awareness development. In comparison, the bilingual children had higher syllable segmentation scores than their monolingual peers. This result is interpreted to reflect the role of second language input on phonological awareness.

scholarly journals Discourse Competence Development in English as Second Language Learners: Effect of Poems on Proficiency and Performance

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-274
Author(s):  
Dr. Shaukat Ali ◽  
Mr. Saddam Hussain ◽  
Mr. Iftekhar Ali
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Treatment Group ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Materials ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Discourse Competence

This study investigates the effect of poems as language teaching materials on the discourse competence of English as a second language learners (ESL) learners. Discourse competence is one of the sub-skills of English speaking skills which has further been divided into two sub-skills called 1) organizing a coherent conversation and 2) then maintaining it. It was a quasi-experimental study consisting of a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG) from the faculty of social sciences, University of Malakand, Pakistan. They were the students of the third semester and were taught English as a minor course. Before the commencement of the experiment, the students of both groups were subjected to a speaking type pre-test. Immediately after the pre-test, the control group was taught through traditional teaching materials whereas; the treatment group was treated with poems as teaching materials. Moreover, observation field notes were employed to find out the reasons behind the performance of the students of both groups. After a six-week experiment, a post-test similar in nature to the pre-test was dispensed among the groups. The scores of the respondents of both groups were compared by using independent samples t-tests. The outcomes indicated that the learners in the treatment group scored significantly higher on the post-test than the learners in the comparison group. The observation field notes further displayed that the students of the treatment group were actively involved in the language learning process. Moreover, they associated the text of poetry with their, socio-cultural, and personal lives. Additionally, they enjoyed greater autonomy due to ambiguity and universality in the texts of the poems. The study suggests that poems should be utilized as teaching materials in ESL classrooms.

The Impact of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotfollah Karimi ◽  
Farshad Veisi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Reading ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

the purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of teaching critical thinking skills on reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A sample of 50 students from Arshia Language Institute in Ilam, Iran participated in this study. They were both male and female students who were selected among 80 students based on their performances on PET. The participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. First, the two groups were exposed to the pre-test of reading comprehension in order to evaluate their knowledge on reading before the treatment. Based on scores obtained from the Pre-test, no significance differences were observed between two groups. After that the treatment was started and the experimental group was exposed to teaching critical thinking skills. Meanwhile, traditional methods of teaching reading comprehension were used for teaching reading comprehension to the control group. Finally, post-test of reading comprehension was delivered to both groups at the end of treatment to check possible differences.  To analyze the collected data, ANCOVA was run using SPSS Software Version 16. The results showed that teaching critical thinking skills positively affect reading comprehension of intermediate EFL learners, but the interaction of gender and teaching critical thinking was not significant.

Gestures by advanced Spanish-English second-language learners

Gesture ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jody Sherman ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Symbolic Gestures ◽  
L1 English

We examined the role of deictic (i.e., point) and symbolic (i.e., imagistic) gestures in advanced Spanish-English second-language learners to determine whether the role of gestures is consistent with that of intermediate second-language learners (i.e., Gullberg, 1998). Participants (10 L1 Spanish and 10 L1 English) watched two short cartoons and re-told the stories in both of their languages to native-speaking listeners who had never seen the film. Gestures were coded and analyzed in relation to word types from the verbal narratives. We found that participants used more deictic gestures in their second language, similar to the trend noted in previous research. Contrary to research with low or intermediate proficiency participants, however, symbolic gestures did not appear related to proficiency. Possible reasons for the differences in gesture use by proficiency are discussed.

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