scholarly journals The Effect of Teaching Structural Discourse Markers in an EFL Classroom Setting

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Budoor Muslim Alraddadi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foundation Program ◽  
Post Test ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact

<p>This study aimed to explore the effects of explicit teaching on the acquisition of spoken discourse markers (DMs) on EFL learners’ presentation production. It also aimed to measure the impact of two different treatments on the acquisition of a set of DMs.</p><p>This study is an experimental study and focuses on the overall production of spoken structural DMs in pre and post instruction where two particular teaching methods are employed. For this purpose, 41 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) female learners from the foundation program participated and they were on the Upper intermediate or B2 level on the Common European Framework of Reference Ability Scale (CEFR) at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia. Learners were divided into two groups; one group was taught using Task-Based-Language Teaching method (TBLT) while for the other group was taught using the Presentation-Practice-Production model (PPP) was used. Based on the functions of structural discourse markers, five selected topics were taught by the researcher for two hours per lesson, which makes up ten hours per group.</p><p>The study mainly aspires to answer three questions; Firstly, it explores which discourse markers do Saudi EFL learners use in giving presentations in English speaking classes (pre–test) and the reason for doing so, is to examine the progress of learners use of DMs through the whole teaching period. Secondly, it investigates which DMs do Saudi learners use after instruction in the immediate post-test and in the delayed post-test that is four weeks after the instruction. Finally, by carrying out a comparative analysis between (TBLT and PPP) the study aims to find out which teaching method is more effective and why.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of Integrating Task-Based Learning and Functional Approach to Empower Learners’ Communicative Competence

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Tri Nguyen ◽  
Trang Xuan Phuong Dao
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact

Enhancing EFL learners’ communicative competence is a time-taking process to reach certain levels of interacting with different communication participants. However, in the tertiary education in Vietnam, traditional teaching approach with the task-based learning does not thoroughly focus on the language use but on the strategies to perform the tasks. Hence, the functional approach has been applied to boost learners’ awareness of their language delivery thanks to communicative functions and notions. The new mode of teaching concentrates on what communication participants desire to convey and why they make use of those speech acts. This paper aimed to explore the impact of the integration of task-based learning and the functional approach, and learners’ perspective towards the implementation of such approach combination. With the application of the mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches, the data were collected via a pre-test and a post-test, survey, and 32 interviews with the participation of 100 students whose major is Business Administration at a university. The findings reveal that adding the functional approach to the existing teaching method could enhance students’ overall speaking competence, especially their fluency and discourse management. Additionally, the application of the functional approach received positive feedback from the learners.  

scholarly journals Discourse markers in academic and non-academic writings of Thai EFL learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1209-1226
Author(s):  
Sumit Choemue ◽  
Barli Bram
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
University Level ◽  
The University

The ability to use discourse markers (DMs) to create cohesion and coherence of a text is essential for EFL learners at the university level to express ideas and thoughts in various types of writing assignments, such as academic papers and reflections. Hence, this study attempted to shed more light on the use of DMs in academic and non-academic writings of Thai EFL learners. The main objective was to investigate the types, overall frequency, and differences, and similarities of discourse markers in both styles of writing. Sixty essays, consisting of 20 academic essays and 40 non-academic ones, were selected as the primary data. Academic essays were selected from the Critical Reading and Writing course of Xavier Learning Community (XLC), Thailand, while the non-academic ones were selected from the XLC English Newsletter. The data were analyzed based on Fraser’s taxonomy (2009). The results showed that 2.521 DMs distributed in five types, namely contrastive discourse, elaborative discourse, inferential discourse, temporal discourse, and spoken discourse markers, were identified in the 20 academic and 40 non-academic essays.  The most frequently used DM was elaborative discourse markers (EDM), F=1,703. This study concluded that raising awareness of DMs would assist Thai EFL learners in producing an effective and coherent piece of writing. 

scholarly journals Using Language Games for Vocabulary Retention in a Rural Primary School in Sarawak

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Lydia Zeta Donald Stavy ◽  
Frankie Subon ◽  
Norseha Unin
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Vocabulary Retention ◽  
New Words ◽  
Conventional Teaching ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact

This study seeks to examine the impact of using language games on students’ vocabulary retention. Six language games were chosen for this study; (1) describe it, (2) matching pairs, (3) jigsaw puzzle, (4) board rush,(5) ball games and (6) true or false. The rationale for choosing six different games is based on the understanding that students require at least five to sixteen exposures to learn a new word (Nation’s, 2001) foreffective vocabulary retention. For this study, vocabulary retention is the ability to keep or retain the new words that are taught for the duration of two weeks. The Pre-test and post-test were used to measure the vocabularyretention of the students. Prior to the pre-test, all 64 participants were taught for two weeks using the conventional teaching method by getting students to look words up in the dictionary, write definitions, and use the words in sentences (Basurto, 2004).For this traditional teaching, the eight new words were chosen from unit 10 of the text book for grade three of Malaysian elementary schools. For the next stage, the students weretaught eight new words from unit 11 of the same text book. After two weeks of teaching using the above six games, the students were given the posttest. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference invocabulary retention between the pre-test and post-test. The participants were able to retain significantly more words in the post-test than in the pre-test. In fact, they achieved better results in the post-test (M=63.45) than in the pre-test (M=58.71). This study reveals that language games can help to boost the students’ vocabulary retention if they are given a chance to learn and practice English language in a fun learning environment.

scholarly journals THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING INDEX CARD MATCH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Sri Ariani ◽  
Tri Setianingsih
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Index Card ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

This research aims to find out Is there any significant differences between the impact of traditional teaching method and using Index Card Match in teaching English vocabulary at the First Year Students of SMA HANG TUAH 3 MATARAM and to find out does using Index Card Match have a positive effect on students’ vocabulary knowledge. The sample of this research is 40 students. The kind of this research is experimental research. The students are divided into two groups such as experimental group and control group. Then the research subjects are pre-tested to know their prior vocabulary mastery. After the treatment, the sample is post-tested to know their recent vocabulary mastery as the result of the treatment. The scores in both pre-test and post-test are taken as the main data of the research. The data is analyzed by using t-test.

scholarly journals The Students’ Attitudes towards the NESTs versus NNESTs and their Impacts on the Students’ Motivations to Learn English Language at KAU

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Haneen Saad Al Muabdi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
English Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
King Abdulaziz University ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers ◽  
The Impact

Motivation is one of the crucial aspects of second language acquisition. Students’ motivation can be influenced by their teachers. The present study aims to investigate the impact of the two types of teachers on EFL learners’ motivations to learn English. These are NESTs (Native English-speaking teachers) and NNESTs (native English-speaking teachers). Hence, it examines learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards the two types of teachers. This study employed a mixed method by distributing a questionnaire contains quantitative and qualitative tools. It consists of twenty items of Likert scales and two open-ended questions. The present study subjects are 31 female students at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The results of the study demonstrate that learners have a positive attitude toward NESTs and NNESTs. Despite that, the tendency to learn with NNESTs is higher than NESTs. The findings also show that both types of teachers motivate students to learn English. Moreover, it suggests that the methodology and teachers’ personalities are more important than the teachers’ nativeness.

scholarly journals The Impact of Using the Station Rotation Model on Saudi EFL Learners’ Descriptive Writing Skills

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-114
Author(s):  
Alanoud Ahmed Aldukhi
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Intermediate School ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Descriptive Writing ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Rotation Model

The present study investigated the impact of the station rotation model (SRM) on enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. It adopted the quasi-experimental pre-post test control/ experimental group design. The tools of the study included a pre/post- descriptive writing skills test, and open-ended questionnaire. The participants of the study were selected randomly, 40 female students enrolled in the twelfth intermediate school in Riyadh. Students of the experimental group received the descriptive writing skills instructions in nine sessions based on the SRM, two of them were for training. The study results revealed statistically significant differences at 0.05 level between the mean scores of the control and the experimental groups on the post test in favor of the experimental group in overall descriptive writing skills as well as in each descriptive writing skill. The researcher recommended that there is a real necessity from educators and teachers to prepare appropriate curriculums that involve implementing the station rotation model inside the classrooms, in a way that corresponds with teachers’ ability and students’ need, aiming to gain the mentioned advantages.

The Impact of an Escape Room Simulation to Improve Nursing Teamwork, Leadership and Communication Skills: A Pilot Project

2020 ◽  
pp. 104687812097273
Author(s):  
Beatriz Valdes ◽  
Mary Mckay ◽  
Jill S. Sanko
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Reflective Questions ◽  
The Impact

Background. Commercial escape room simulation-based educational experiences were piloted on a cohort of ten RN-BSN students to determine the effect on mastery of communication, leadership, and teamwork skills. Methods. Pre-test/post-test research design and qualitative questions were used to measure the impact of an escape room simulation activity on teamwork, communication, and leadership skills. The Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety® Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire, and self reported levels of confidence and competence questionnaire were administered pre/post escape room simulation to measure communication, team structure and leadership skills. The University of Miami-Crisis Resource Management tool was utilized to measure observed teamwork. Additionally, four open-ended qualitative self-reflective questions were asked following the escape room. Results. Data from the analysis of the pre and post observations of simulation encounters found statistically significant time dependent differences noting improvements in observed teamwork and leadership, p <.001, pre-mean 18.5, post-mean 35.0. Qualitative data revealed the participants found the escape room simulation to be an engaging teaching method to master teamwork and leadership skills. Conclusion. This pilot study sets the foundation for future use and exploration of escape room experiences to teach teamwork, communication, leadership and situational awareness. Following the escape room simulation, observed improvements in teamwork and leadership were found. Participants found the escape room activity to be an engaging experiential teaching method to promote attainment of critical skills needed to work as an effective member of a team. Study findings suggest that the use of an escape room can impart experiential learning with critical skills needed to work as an effective member of a team. As a result of this pilot study, nursing faculty developed an escape room simulation experience that was initiated the following semester.

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.

The effectiveness of written corrective feedback and the impact Lao learners’ beliefs have on uptake

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Rummel ◽  
John Bitchener
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Feedback Preferences ◽  
The Impact

This article presents the results of a study examining the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF) on the simple past tense and the impact beliefs may have on students’ uptake of the feedback they receive. A seven-week study was carried out with 42 advanced EFL learners in Vientiane, Laos. Students’ beliefs about written CF were first collected, after which they were assigned to either the control group or to groups that received written CF according to their feedback preferences. Students produced four pieces of writing (pre-test, post-test and two delayed post-tests) that responded to four different narrative prompts. The targeted grammatical feature was the simple past tense. The study found that the three feedback groups showed significant improvement in the use of the targeted feature while the control group did not. Furthermore, the results seemed to indicate that beliefs might have impacted on the extent to which the Lao students improved their linguistic accuracy because the students who received their preferred type of feedback were more successful at eliminating the targeted errors than the ones who did not.

scholarly journals The Impact of Discourse Marker Instruction on Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity Improvement of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Ghader Asadzadian ◽  
Rashid Saad ◽  
Fereshteh Asadzadian
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
English Major ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of discourse marker (DM) instruction on fluency, accuracy, and complexity improvement of Iranian intermediate EFL learner’s writing. To this aim, among the two hundred forth year English major learners in Dezful university, Iran, fifty of them who were in the intermediate level, based on the scoring system of the university, were recruited. They were given a topic to write before intervention. Then, the fifty participants passed through twenty-hour instruction on micro and macro DMs, based on Belles-Furtuno’s (2004) classification of discourse markers. The mentioned classification included both sentential and supra sentential markers. In the process of explicit instruction (EI) of DMs, they were given various exercises and activities to apply DMs and learn the function and usage of these units and input flood (IF) was performed along with corrective feedback (CF) with the help of the teacher with their mistakes and misunderstandings of DMs. After intervention, they were given another topic to write to examine if EI+IF of DMs could help them improve fluency, accuracy, and complexity of their writing. To quantify the results the Wolfe-Quintero (1998) method was used and it was unveiled that all the three components of writing improved after intervention, which practically means instruction of DMs could enhance learner’s writing in the three aspects. The findings can be used by teachers and syllabus designers to consider DMs as one of the most crucial components in writing courses.

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