scholarly journals From Bakhtin to See the Co-construction of EFL Adult Learners’ Utterances

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Chingyi Tseng ◽  
Keun Huh

<p>The purposes of this study were to explore the effect of dialogic activities on EFL students’ utterances development by engaging with others, as well as the students’ perceptions in the dialogic learning environment. The theoretical framework guiding this inquiry consists of the on-site lecture from the instructor and voice board feedback from the peers and the instructor based on the dialogical theory of language concepts from Bakhtin’s dialogism which emphasizes a social and interactive situation of foreign language learning by engaging with others. In this study, we cover multiple data sources that give us an overview of students’ interaction in the dialogic activities: the questionnaire of voice board interactions, students’ interviews, and speaking tests. The results showed, on the whole, English language learners actually developed some kind of utterances by engaging their own and others. They transformed others’ utterances in the oral interaction for their own use in the Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication (ACMC) environment. Additionally, the learners perceived the voice board activities helpful for the development of their speaking abilities, while the learners’ perceptions are mediated through the dialogical activities in which the learners are engaged in.</p>

Author(s):  
Zulfikar Zulfikar ◽  
Cut Tarri Aulia ◽  
Saiful Akmal

Listening is central for language learning and for daily communication. However, in foreign language learning, students still encounter problems in understanding listening materials. This present study is aimed to reveal the students’ problems in listening English news broadcasts. The subjects of this study were two classrooms at the Department of English Language Education at an acknowledged university in Banda Aceh. The samples were made of 50 students in their third semester. This study employed a quantitative analysis approach. A close-ended questionnaire was used as the instruments in collecting the data. The findings showed that the difficulties faced by the students in listening to English news broadcast were mainly caused by unfamiliar topics, unfamiliar vocabulary, different accents, fast speech rate, unintelligible pronunciation, difficulty in inference making, excessively long passages, complicated grammatical structure, as well as complex ideas.


Author(s):  
Firooz Sadighi ◽  
Mehdi Dastpak

Foreign language learning anxiety is one of the affective factors which influence language learning negatively. It has several sources and different types. The present study aimed at investigating the sources of foreign language speaking anxiety of Iranian EFL learners. To do so, 154 EFL learners participated in the study. They were required to fill out a foreign language anxiety questionnaire which was developed based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986). The results of the study indicated that “fear of making mistakes”, “fear of negative evaluation”, and “lack of vocabulary knowledge” were the main factors which caused anxiety among students. Some strategies are recommended for the students to use in order to cope with the anxiety-provoking factors. 


Author(s):  
Hélder Fanha Martins

The objective of this chapter is to gain a better understanding of the usefulness of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) for promoting English as a foreign language (EFL) acquisition. To accomplish this goal, the author analyzed specific categories of interaction occurring between English language learners while playing an online game entitled Eve Online. Previous research has proved that there are positive outcomes on EFL acquisition from the interaction that takes place while playing video games known as MMORPGs. These games immerse players in virtual worlds that are inhabited by hundreds and even thousands of other players, and all are partaking in the game in real time. Learners who choose to play the game in a foreign language are exposed to target language input in a context-rich environment where they can interact with native-speakers and other language learners.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Hakki Mirici

In this experimental study, based on qualitative and quantitative data collection from an experimental and a control group, the influence of 2 different ways of prestudy on foreign language learning attitude of the upper-intermediate level of English language learners was investigated. One prestudy program was based on specially designed familiarization handout-materials comprising topic-related reading activities, the other program entailed using a dictionary focusing on the words used in the target unit. Students who worked with the handout were significantly more motivated, active, and interactive than those who worked with a dictionary. In addition, teachers felt that students who did prestudy using handouts found the unit more meaningful and developed a better attitude towards learning a foreign language than did those who relied on a dictionary.


Author(s):  
Carolin Fuchs

This article discusses how groups of student teachers use the wiki to collaborate cross-institutionally in order to design tasks for English language learners. Participants in this case study involved student teachers at a private graduate institution on the East Coast in the U.S. and students at a public graduate institution in Luxembourg. In this action research approach, data triangulation involved gathering information through a combination of different instruments such as computer-mediated communication data, needs analyses, journal entries, and post-course questionnaires. Findings showed that in addition to writing collaboratively, groups used the wiki as a discussion tool. This subsequently led to an exploration of the interactions through computer-mediated discourse analysis and a discussion of methodological implications.


Author(s):  
Kosmas Vlachos ◽  
Sofia Papaefthimiou-Lytra

Computer assisted language learning (CALL) has been at the forefront of foreign language education since the early 1980s. More recently researchers’ and practioners’ attention has centered on the sociocognitive approaches to CALL, that is, on the classroom practices and the electronic applications that make use of students’ interaction via the computer to promote the foreign language learning potential. This article addresses the issues of cross cultural collaboration and computer mediated communication (CMC) and explores how asynchronous online networking can foster a) the collaboration across partner classes and b) the cooperation of students within partner classrooms with the aim of enhancing the learning of English as a foreign language and in particular the development of language and culture awareness and mediation skills and ultimately intercultural communicative competence.


Author(s):  
Salvador Montaner-Villalba ◽  
Bruce Lander ◽  
Valentina Morgana ◽  
Vera Leier ◽  
Jaime Selwood ◽  
...  

There is no doubt that Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and mobile mediated communication are linked as technology continues to transform the way we communicate with each other. Campbell (2019) analyzed how mobile communication evolved into portable devices to form a complete system of mobile media, reshaping the fabric of our social lives via ‘sociality’ and ‘spatiality’. In this short paper, we would like to offer a brief overview of the diverse oral presentations which took place in the joint CMC and MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) Special Interest Group (SIG) symposium at the online conference this year. This short paper will introduce various online apps which are available for free in both computer-based and mobile versions and can be adapted to foreign language learning in various ways.


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