scholarly journals “I Apology no no I Mean I Am Sorry … Please Let Me Explain That First”: Enhancing Communicative Language Competence of Thai University Students Through CEFR-Based Online Intercultural Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Rutthaphak Huttayavilaiphan

During this COVID-19 pandemic, no one can deny the value of online communication. It has saved our lives by preventing us from going outdoors and becoming infected, while also facilitating achievement of various personal and professional goals. Online communication can also assist us with our academic goals, whether it is used to communicate with supervisors or with people from other lingua-cultural backgrounds to practice the language. This form of communication is emphasized in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) framework, which is one of the most significant guidelines for language teaching and learning throughout the world. The present research has two aims: first, to determine the extent to which CEFR-based online intercultural communication can improve Thai students’ communicative language competence, and second, to investigate Thai students’ attitudes toward CEFR-based online intercultural communication and international volunteers. The results received from 15 fifth-year dual B.A. (Chinese) and B.CM. (Traditional Chinese Medicine) students and international volunteers using various research instruments revealed that Thai students could increase their communicative language competence after participating in CEFR-based intercultural communication activities. This encompassed linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic abilities that correspond to the CEFR (2001) scales. In terms of attitudes, the study indicated that, because they were more confident in their communicative language ability, they had a positive attitude toward the CEFR-based online intercultural communication activities and their international volunteers. Finally, further research on this topic should include a proper design of online communication activities as well as methods for assessing students’ competency both before and after participation.

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Ikuko Nakane ◽  
Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson ◽  
Satoko Tokumaru

The issue of e-politeness has been attracting increasing attention in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. This article examines how students of Japanese as a foreign language in Australia negotiated power and solidarity in their email correspondence with ‘facilitators’ in Japan who provided support in essay writing tasks. Their relationships, which were neither completely status-unequal nor status-equal, offer a unique social context for an examination of politeness. The study examines whether and how power and solidarity shifted over the 12 weeks of email exchanges. The results show varying levels of rapport and orientations to politeness developing over time, as well as evidence of students applying implicit input from the facilitators’ email messages. The article also considers the impacts, on the politeness phenomena in the data, of students’ cultural backgrounds and prior exposure to casual Japanese. The findings are discussed in relation to the question of ‘appropriateness’ in fostering foreign language learner ability to negotiate power and solidarity in intercultural communication.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greig Krull ◽  
Brenda Mallinson

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa face the challenge of responding to the expanding demand for tertiary education while maintaining or enhancing the quality of their course offerings. This has led to some HEIs introducing interactive web technologies to support their distance teaching and learning practices. However, academic staff at these institutions may struggle to provide sufficient support to online learners in part due to inadequate staff capacity in terms of familiarity with and use of online communication tools. This paper reports the practical experiences of building academic staff capacity within three southern Africa institutions, in order to initiate skills development and introduce foundational concepts in support of engaging online learners. The design of the course material is discussed and the experiences of the facilitators and participants are examined.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Ji Meng

This research investigated a comparison between the effect of cooperative learning and lecture teaching on Comprehensive English classes in a Chinese Independent College. An empirical study for two semesters was carried out in the forms of pretest, posttest, questionnaire and interviews. While control class was taught in the conventional way, experiment class was instructed based on cooperative base groups with positive interdependence structured on purpose. Compared with traditional instructions, cooperative learning as pedagogy can improve students’ performance on course exams, but not necessarily their language competence as shown in national English competency tests taken before and after the experiement. Test results also indicate students from experiment class who excelled in competency test outnumbered those from control class, revealing that cooperative learning has positive impacts especially on students at a relatively higher academic level. Questionaire results show that students are most inclined to agree they have more chances to practice the language in a cooperative environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100
Author(s):  
Agung Prihatmojo

The media is a communication tool for teacher interaction with students which is a series of teaching and learning activities in schools. In the learning process the teacher has obstacles in conveying knowledge to students. The teacher needs media to be able to help attract the attention of students so that learning objectives are achieved. Picture card learning media can help teachers effectively achieve learning objectives in the teaching and learning process. This study applies a picture card learning media to students in class V SD Negeri 4 Tanjung Aman. The aim is to find out the improvement in student learning outcomes after the teacher applies the pictorial card learning media to fifth grade students of SD Negeri 4 Tanjung Aman. In this study using a design that is the Initial Test - The Final Group Single Test (The One Group Pretest - posttest). The learning outcomes in this study were obtained by the fifth grade students before and after the implementation of the pictorial card media, to find out the improvement in the learning outcomes of the fifth grade students of SD Negeri 4 Tanjung Aman. shows that the mean or posttest average is higher than the pretest. Mean posttest 62.22 and mean pretest 46.25, so there is an increase in learning outcomes after the application of the pictorial card media to fifth grade students of SD Negeri 4 Tanjung Aman.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Fatih Ocal

Integrating the properties of computer algebra systems and dynamic geometry environments, Geogebra became an effective and powerful tool for teaching and learning mathematics. One of the reasons that teachers use Geogebra in mathematics classrooms is to make students learn mathematics meaningfully and conceptually. From this perspective, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether instruction with Geogebra has effect on students’ achievements regarding their conceptual and procedural knowledge on the applications of derivative subject. This study adopted the quantitative approach with pre-test post-test control group true experimental design. The participants were composed of two calculus classrooms involving 31 and 24 students, respectively. The experimental group with 31 students received instruction with Geogebra while the control group received traditional instruction in learning the applications of derivative. Independent samples t-test was used in the analysis of the data gathered from students’ responses to Applications of Derivative Test which was subjected to them before and after teaching processes. The findings indicated that instruction with Geogebra had positive effect on students’ scores regarding conceptual knowledge and their overall scores. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between experimental and control group students’ scores regarding procedural knowledge. It could be concluded that students in both groups were focused on procedural knowledge to be successful in learning calculus subjects including applications of derivative in both groups. On the other hand, instruction with Geogebra supported students’ learning these subjects meaningfully and conceptually.


Author(s):  
Amber Yayin Wang ◽  
Wan-Jeng Chang

To expand global and intercultural communication, the effectiveness of asynchronous online communication devices, especially email, have been discussed in the area of foreign language teaching. A lack of specific research exists that addresses the application of online voicemail. This paper reports on a five month period of voicemail exchanges between 53 EFL learners in Taiwan and 56 CFL learners in the United States. The authors examine the responses of EFL students to this cross–cultural voicemail project and assess their progress in intercultural awareness and English speaking proficiency before and after the project. This study concludes that the use of voicemail creates an impact on the English speaking performance and intercultural awareness of EFL students and increases the motivation of EFL students in using English to express ideas. Further implications for teaching are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Agoeng Koerniawan SA

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of academic information systems in improving the quality of higher education implementation in PGRI STKIP Bangkalan, and the extent to which the policies of implementing higher education before and after the use of information systems and how satisfaction is felt by students towards academic information systems at STKIP PGRI Bangkalan, named STKIP PGRI Bangkalan’s Siakad.The study was conducted by conducting a survey of users of the internet-based academic information system (Siakad STKIP PGRI Bangkalan), namely lecturers, students and employees with the method of observation and conducting in-depth interviews to obtain as much information as possible from all respondents/informants. The number of informants was 5 people consisting of the chairman of STKIP PGRI Bangkalan, Vice Chairman I, Head of BAAK and two students who had experience in their respective fields of work, knew deeply and had many roles in the process of using information systems.Based on the results of the study, it was shown that with the use of the information system/ STKIP PGRI Bangkalan’s Siakad which is one of the facilities for the smooth activities of the teaching and learning process, it proved to provide convenience, many benefits and benefits that greatly support the duties of serving lecturers, students and outsiders requiring. This is evidenced by the support of the support of lecturers and students, capacity, namely the ability of employees to process data and value, namely the benefits felt by lecturers, employees and students as well as outside parties in need.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Nizam Arshad ◽  
Noor Azean Atan ◽  
Abdul Halim Abdullah ◽  
Mahani Mokhtar ◽  
Mohd Salleh Abu

Reasoning skills are very important in encouraging students to think more critically and logically, as depicted in the Malaysian Education Development Plan (2013-2025). Therefore, this study looked into improving the Differentiation Reasoning Level (DRL) of reasoning skills among students for a topic in the Additional Mathematics subject,  known as Differentiation, through reasoning learning strategy. The study participants consisted of a total of 31 students from a secondary boarding school in Johor, selected through a purposive sampling method. A pre-test was carried out for the participants, from the advanced level, followed by a number of repetition tests, before the post-test assessment was conducted. The data collection for this study employed a set of Reasoning Test on Differentiation (RTD) and 10 sets of learning activities on Differentiation based on modified Marzano Rubric for Specific Task of Situations (1992). This dimension involved four types of reasoning skills, namely,  comparison, classification, inductive, and deductive. The survey data, through paired samples t-test, revealed a significant difference between the mean scores in pre-test and post-test (p <0.05). In addition, the paired sample t-test showed a significant difference on the level of reasoning among students from each construct in the reasoning skills before and after using this module. In conclusion, the Marzano Model of Dimensional Learning (1992) is a thinking skill model that can help improve students' reasoning skills. The model covers analysis aspects of what has been learned by implementing the process of identifying reasons, which will help students to add and expand their knowledge. The findings also implied that, the processes of teaching and learning play an important role in ensuring students’ capability to emphasize on the implementation process of reasoning skills


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-239
Author(s):  
Animar Animar ◽  

The spread of the Corona virus has had a significant impact on the world of education. The policy taken by many countries, including Indonesia, is to close all educational activities. This makes the government and related institutions have to present an alternative learning process. Many factors affect student learning outcomes coupled with changes in learning conditions due to the Corona virus (Covid-19) outbreak. The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the impacts and constraints of the Covid-19 outbreak on teaching and learning activities, especially in Geography subjects at SMA Negeri 1 Sikur. Data collection was carried out using the pretest - posttest method of students' abilities before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, data analysis was carried out by quantitative methods using paired sample t-test to test the difference in the effect of the two treatments on the interrelated sample groups. The results of the analysis indicate that there is a difference in the average Geography learning outcomes of 11th grade of social science students before and after the outbreak of the corona virus. Information was obtained that the average value of student learning outcomes during the face-to-face learning process was 86.27, better than the average value when the learning process was carried out online which was 75.73. Keywords: covid-19 impact, learning outcomes, geography


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
Rosalind McFarlane ◽  
Marta Spes-Skrbis ◽  
Anne Taib

This session reports on Monash University’s recently developed Let’s Chat program, delivered at three campuses as a modularised, peer learning opportunity for students from first year to PhD. Involving 3,591 student participants and facilitators in 2015 and 2016, the program responds directly to student feedback and recommendations. Let’s Chat maximises opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction with the aim of increasing participants’ confidence and competence in spoken English and intercultural communication. Informed by current trends in student-centred and peer-assisted learning theory, TESOL and intercultural communication, Let’s Chat is quickly establishing itself as an effective approach to supporting student participation, engagement and sense of belonging in diverse teaching and learning contexts and communities. The session presents a snapshot of the genesis of the program; an evaluation of its implementation; and a summary of emerging outcomes. The session also engages participants in a conversation about how this model might be replicated in other settings.


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