Kurdish EFL Learners’ Perceptions towards Written Corrective Feedback and Its Types: An Investigative Study

Written Corrective Feedback has been one of the most controversial topics (Waller, 2015), and it has been researched extensively. Still, the lack of research among Kurdish EFL learners made it necessary to conduct the current research. This study focuses on investigating learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback and its types. It attempts to answer what the Kurdish EFL learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback are, and what types of written corrective feedback among Kurdish Learners are preferred. Answering these questions is significant as the results can be used by both teachers and learners to improve learners’ writing accuracy. A survey questionnaire was distributed to collect data. After analyzing data, the results reveal that most Kurdish EFL participants were not fully aware of WCF and its effectiveness as a learning tool. However, they still expected their writing teachers to provide them with WCF in writing tasks. Also, the results indicate that Kurdish EFL learners preferred two types of WCF: explicit and implicit WCF. Hence, the results have many pedagogical implications for writing teachers and learners. Firstly, it shows how EFL learners from other countries and contexts perceive WCF, and secondly, results encourage writing teachers to give more attention and value to WCF.

Educational Robotics for Creating Effective Computer Science Learning for All

President Obama's initiative, “computer science for all,” has been a rallying slogan for promoting computer science in K-12 education. Although the participation of people of color in computer science (CS) has increased in the past several years, it is still drastically low and does not reflect the real picture of our society. This chapter explores how educational robotics as a learning tool can inspire underrepresented minorities including females and students of color to become interested in CS. Supported by Papert's constructionism theory, educational robotics effectively facilitates students' learning of various concepts in CS and STEM. Educational robotics is a learning tool which inspires students' interest in learning. It provides a learning environment that promotes students' learning of various CS concepts and computational thinking skills. Although robots naturally spark students' interests, to make it most effective, teachers are required effortfully to create learning opportunities that are authentic and meaningful for individual students.

Story-Telling, Gamification, and Videogames

The educational use of gamification in class has been widely explored by research. Theorizations establish a direct relationship between gamification and higher levels of motivation and engagement of students regardless of their educational levels. When teaching English as a second language, gamification becomes a key factor to provide dynamism to lessons and to foster the consolidation of the content taught in class. Moreover, gamification not only promotes the assimilation of vocabulary and grammar, but also the improvement of oral and written comprehension and production. The extensive use of new technologies in class has proved to be very useful for the implementation of the methodology on gamification. One of the tools that has attracted the attention of educators recently is Classcraft, an online virtual game based on digital storytelling. This chapter aims at explaining and assessing the use of Classcraft as a successful technology-based collaborative learning tool in a course on English as a second language at the university level.

Using Escape Rooms to Improve Pre-Service Teachers' Communicative Skills in English as a Foreign Language

The chapter implements an escape room with pre-service teachers to improve their communicative skills in English. Fifty-seven university students from the degrees of Childhood and Primary School Education, with different levels of English proficiency, participated in the experiment: 10 of them helped with the implementation and the rest participated in the escape room. Self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection to know students' opinions about using escape rooms as a learning tool. Results showed that using an escape room in the English class is a successful method since it fosters active learning, teamwork, socialization, motivation, and helps to improve communicative skills.

PENGGUNAAN MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN SEBAGAI UPAYA MENCIPTAKAN PEMBELAJARAN AKTIF DI KELAS

Learning media is a learning tool or device that can be used by teachers to assist them in conveying learning messages. This study aims to determine how the influence of learning media in creating active learning. This research was conducted using descriptive qualitative method. Data collection techniques in this study used interview and observation techniques. Based on the research that has been done, the implementation of learning at SDN Kebon Jahe, especially in class V, has used learning media that makes learning run active.