Linguistic Equivalence is Not Sufficient: Saudi Translation Students’ Linguistic Knowledge Compared to their Sociocultural Knowledge of the English Language

The current study is motivated by the dearth of studies regarding English translation students' grammatical and sociocultural competencies and their relationship with their Grade Point Averages (GPAs). To fill this gap, this study sought to find if there is a statistically significant relationship between the respondents' GPAs and their levels of grammatical and cultural knowledge. To do this, a multiple-choice test with four sections was developed and validated by experts in the field to examine the respondents' levels of grammatical and sociocultural knowledge. The first two sections examined respondents' knowledge levels of the functions of the key elements of English language tense and aspect (FELTA) and Acceptable Forms of English Language Tense and Aspect (AFELTA). The other two sections examined their knowledge levels of aspects of the culture of American English native speakers (AspCNS) and culturally appropriate American English language use (AppLU). The sample for this study were selected randomly from the department of English Language and Translation at King Saud University. Seventy-five male English translation students from different college levels responded to the questionnaire test. Using descriptive statistics, the responses were coded and analyzed, and thereafter, the respondents' scores on each single section of the test were compared with their GPA scores to determine the statistical significance of differences and correlation. It was found that there was a statistically significant relationship between the GPA scores, the respondents' knowledge of AFELTA, and the knowledge of AppLU. However, no significant relationships were found between the GPA scores and the respondents' knowledge of FELTA or knowledge of AspCNS.

Download Full-text

An Analysis of Teachers’ Questions in English Language Classroom: A Case Study in Year 10 of SMK N 1 Nunukan

Journal of English Language and Pedagogy ◽

10.36597/jelp.v1i1.2792 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Eka Pratiwi ◽

Yuyun Yulia

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Video Recording ◽

Language Teachers ◽

Target Language ◽

Knowledge Level ◽

Teaching English ◽

Language Classroom ◽

Tenth Grade ◽

Research Findings ◽

English Language Teachers

In English language classroom, teachers’ questions are important parts of teaching English language. Teachers need to know what kind of questions which potentially support students learning target language. However, students did not actively participate in learning particularly when responding teachers’ questions. To overcome this problem, it is important for teachers to modify their question through some techniques in order to get students’ responses. This study reports the types of teachers’ questions used by English teachers in classroom, and the classification of modification questions used by teachers during teaching English language in class.This research belongs to classroom discourse analysis. The research was conducted at tenth grade of SMKN 1 Nunukan. The data were collected through observation, video recording, and interview. The teachers’ questions were analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s (1995) model of qualitative data analysis.The research findings show that both teachers pose more questions of knowledge level than other levels, and the teachers used various techniques to modify their questions when the students did not give response. The modification of modifying questions are repeating and rephrasing. Then sometimes teachers negotiated questions by in Bahasa Indonesia or first language (local language). The domination of knowledge level questions and how teachers modified the questions is influenced by teachers’ competence, students’ competence, situation of teaching English language, and teaching material.

Download Full-text

Pragma-linguistic Difficulties in the Recognition of Phrasal Verbs by Iraqi EFL University Learners

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ◽

10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.6p.148 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 148

Author(s):

Mohanad A. Amret ◽

Sinan A. Yousif

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

First Language ◽

Target Language ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

Phrasal Verbs ◽

Efl Learners ◽

First Language Transfer ◽

Culture Gap

The purpose of this paper is to recognize the level of pragma-linguistic difficulties Iraqi EFL university learners face when handling phrasal verbs. Despite the fact that phrasal verbs are easy to understand by native speakers of English, non-native speakers usually encounter some difficulties in understanding the meaning of a phrasal verb depending on the meaning of the root verb, or different phrasal verbs of the same root. The problem might be attributed to pragma-linguistic knowledge. However, culture gap could be the reason behind such difficulties. The aim of the study is (1) to evaluate the pragma-linguistic level of interpreting phrasal verbs as understood and used by Iraqi EFL university learners, (2) to check the level of difficulty they experience while recognizing phrasal verbs, and (3) to find out reasons behind such misinterpretations. It is hypothesized that (1) the pragma-linguistic interpretation of phrasal verbs tends to play an important role in understanding the message conveyed by the speaker; (2) cultural gap could be the reason that EFL learners recognize phrasal verbs incorrectly, and (3) mother tongue language might make it difficult for EFL learners to understand phrasal verbs. To verify the aforementioned hypothesis, a test has been constructed and administered to a sample of 100 fourth-year Iraqi EFL university learners, morning classes at the department of English Language and Literature, College of Arts, in Mustansiriyah University, during the academic year 2017 – 2018. The responses of the students have been collected and linguistically analyzed according to a model given by Richards and Schmidt (2010). It has been found that Iraqi students’ lack of cultural norms of the target language makes it difficult for them to understand phrasal verbs. The lack of this knowledge is considered as a factor of confusion and then failure. The influence of the first language culture on the recognition of phrasal verbs may be seen as a negative first language transfer. The reason behind this negative transfer is that the norms and principles of first language are different from the norms and principles of the target language. It has been concluded that Iraqi EFL university learners have difficulties in pragma-linguistic knowledge as far as phrasal verbs are concerned. Iraqi EFL university learners face great difficulties in using phrasal verbs while communicating with other people. While using phrasal verbs, Iraqi EFL university learners have been highly influenced by their mother tongue language.

Download Full-text

The Cultural Dimension of SLA Attitudes of Philological and Non-Philological Learners to English Language Speakers

Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology ◽

10.21301/eap.v16i4.10 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 1207-1227

Author(s):

Jelena V. Grubor

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Social Distance ◽

Language Contact ◽

English Language ◽

Age Groups ◽

Language Teachers ◽

Target Language ◽

Cultural Dimension ◽

Indirect Contact ◽

Main Research

Attitudes towards target language (TL) speakers present an aspect pertaining to the cultural dimension of learning a foreign language. Consequently, the main goals of the study were to determine the participants’ attitudes towards the British and Americans, and the degree of social distance the participants felt towards these groups by comparing evaluations of their willingness to identify with TL and L1 speakers. The participants included in the study (N=239) represented two age groups (secondary and tertiary students), and two educational profiles: philological (Phil) and non-philological (Non-Phil) groups. The main research instruments were an adapted Bogardus Social Distance Scale, which showed good internal consistency on all the subscales, and an English language contact scale, whose aim was to test the participants’ actual interaction with the target language speakers (the length of stay in a TL community, potential mobility via school/university exchange programmes). The main finding suggests that Phil groups, being more familiar with the TL culture, evaluated its speakers much more positively and were generally more willing to identify with TL members, even at the most intimate level (spouse). Accordingly, the practical implications would be to encourage foreign language teachers to keep acquainting learners with different cultural elements and work towards fostering positive attitudes to the TL and its culture. What our study has failed to determine, though, is whether the actual contact with real, flesh-and-blood people in contrast to indirect contact with ‘imaginary TL speakers’ that are the product of one’s perception makes a difference in attitudes.

Download Full-text

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature ◽

10.33195/uochjll/3/1/03/2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Language Skills ◽

Primary Source ◽

English For Academic Purposes ◽

Target Language ◽

Teaching Principles

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

Download Full-text

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature ◽

10.33195/jll.v3i1.104 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Language Skills ◽

Primary Source ◽

English For Academic Purposes ◽

Target Language ◽

Teaching Principles ◽

Language Needs

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

Download Full-text

Error Analysis for English Language Teachingat Primary Level

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH ◽

10.24113/ijellh.v6i9.4927 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (9) ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Dr. Shreeja Sharma ◽

Prof. Shubhra Tripathi

Keyword(s):

Error Analysis ◽

English Language ◽

English Language Teaching ◽

Target Language ◽

Primary Level ◽

Indian Schools ◽

Prime Concern ◽

School Teaching ◽

Linguistic Code ◽

Global Language

The prime concern of every language teacher, and to some extent every linguist, is to device pedagogical methods and strategies which facilitate language acquisition. The concern of any teacher or applied linguist is, though not explicitly stated anywhere, to equip the learners with “correct” features of the language being learnt. Emphasis on “correctness” is due to the presumption that erroneous structures or deviations from linguistic code will lead to incomprehensibility and impediment in communication.As a result of such convictionsContrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) focussed their attention on “correct” grammatical, lexical and syntactical features of Target Language (TL), in this case English.Both Contrastive Analysts and Error Analysts analysed the language and tried to predict areas of ease or difficulty. This was often achieved with ‘some’ degree of success. However, in the present socio-educational milieu of Indian schools, where English language teaching is a significant stake, insights from CA and EA, particularly the latter, are either not taken into cognizance, or found inadequate. CA is taken into consideration, though obliquely, indirectly and cursorily, where English language is taught resorting to bilingualism. EA is usually ignored completely. Even when teachers correct students’ assignments and copies, they point out mistakes/errors, suggest corrections, but neither take into account why these mistakes/errors have occurred, nor how to prevent such cases in future. With the ever growing importance of English as a global language and a second language in India, no stakeholder in education can afford to undermine the significance of ELT.The time is therefore ripe to take a fresh look at Error Analysis (EA) and assess how it can be deployed as a powerful tool in school teaching.

Download Full-text

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF VERBS IN ENGLISH AND ALBANIAN

Knowledge International Journal ◽

10.35120/kij28072245s ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (7) ◽

pp. 2245-2249

Author(s):

Suzana Ejupi ◽

Lindita Skenderi

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Learning Process ◽

English Learners ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Target Language ◽

Part Of Speech ◽

Grammatical Categories ◽

Learning English

Working with English learners for many years, gives you the opportunity to encounter linguistic obstacles that they face while learning English language as a foreign language. Additionally, teaching for 13 years and observing the learning process, it enables you to recognize the students’ needs and at the same time, detect linguistic mistakes that they make, while practicing the target language. During my experience as a teacher, in terms of teaching and learning verbs in general and its grammatical categories in specific, it is noticed that Albanian learners find it relatively difficult the correct use of verbs in context and even more confusing the equivalent use of verbs in Albanian. Since verbs present an important part of speech, this study aims to investigate several differences and similarities between grammatical categories of verbs in English and Albanian. As a result, the Albanian learners of English language will be able to identify some of the major differences and similarities between the grammatical categories of verbs in English and Albanian; overcome the usual mistakes; gain the necessary knowledge regarding verbs and use them properly in English and Albanian.

Download Full-text

Recontextualizing Quality Talk for an Eighth-Grade English Classroom in China

ECNU Review of Education ◽

10.1177/2096531120970174 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 209653112097017

Author(s):

Liwei Wei ◽

P. Karen Murphy ◽

Shenghui Wu

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Small Group ◽

English Language ◽

Group Discussion ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Target Language ◽

Eighth Grade ◽

Pedagogical Approach ◽

Language Class ◽

English Classroom

Purpose: Conducting meaningful interactions in the target language is essential for language learning. However, in many English language classrooms in China, it is rare that students are provided with such opportunities. In the current study, we presented and critically evaluated the implementation of a small-group discussion approach called Quality Talk (QT) in an eighth-grade English language classroom in China. Design/Approach/Methods: One eighth-grade English teacher and 82 eighth-grade students in a public middle school in Beijing participated in the study using a pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design. Recordings of teacher coaching sessions and student discussions, researchers’ field notes, and participating teacher’s written reflections were used to identify successful practices and lessons learned with respect to the implementation of QT. Implications for future directions were also discussed. Findings: The results revealed that to successfully implement a discourse-intensive pedagogical approach in a large English language class, it is essential that (a) the materials used for discussion closely align with the school curriculum, (b) students are grouped heterogeneously and scaffolded to engage in discussions both in their native and target languages, and (c) student leadership be leveraged to facilitate discussion in each small group. Originality/Value: The present study delineated the details with respect to implementing a discourse-intensive pedagogical approach in an eighth-grade English classroom in China. We derived several key insights from recontextualizing QT in an English learning, large class context in China. These insights might hold the potential to improve the effectiveness of English teaching and learning in China.

Download Full-text

Analysis of EFL Learners’ Integrative and Instrumental Motivation Factor at English Language Education Undiksha

The Art of Teaching English as a Foreign Language ◽

10.36663/tatefl.v1i1.83 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 55-62

Author(s):

Made Surya Mahendra ◽

Ni Luh Putu Eka Sulistia Dewi ◽

Ida Ayu Made Istri Utami

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Language Education ◽

Target Language ◽

Education Students ◽

English Language Education ◽

Motivation Factors ◽

Integrative Motivation ◽

Language Attitude ◽

Learning English

This study aimed (1) to analyze motivation’s factor that affects English Language Education Students in achieving learning English both in instrumental and integrative motivation; (2) to analyze the major factor of motivation that affect students; and (3) to analyze how the major factor of motivation influence the students in achieving their goal in learning English. The survey was employed as a method of data collection through questionnaires and interviews. Both instruments consisted of instrumental and integrative motivation, which each dimension involves three factors of motivation. The results showed that English Language Education students were affected by six motivation factors. Those are academic, social, economic, attitude toward learning the target language, attitude toward the target language community, and desire to learn the target language. Among those motivation factors, the academic and attitude toward learning the target language were the major factor that affects students in achieving their goal in language learning.

Download Full-text