EFFECTIVENESS OF OBSERVE AND RELATE SELF - APPROACH (ORSA) IN ENHANCING THE GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE: A

The study determined the effectiveness of Observation Response and Self-Approach (ORSA) in improving the grammatical competence of Grade 7 learners of Looc Integrated School. This study used the quasi- experimental design and pretest/ posttest questionnaire. ORSA was used as an approach to teach students grammar including WH questions, verb, and prepositions. This was limited to selected Grade 7 students with the lowest grammatical competence. The ORSA study was taken from the name of the author itself, a new way to assess students through positive assessments that explores the learner’s innate talents and skills and to reassure and to encourage the development of strength in students. It is also centered on the pedagogical approaches and emphasizes the use of positive assessment as to its unique feature in evaluating students’ performance utilizing non-threatening assessments that motivated the students to develop self-efficacy and eventually become an independent learner whose competencies acquired are internationally aligned and acceptable even during this new normal in the time of pandemic. The idea of ORSA can be anchored on Locke’s idea of reflection. Before applying the approaches, students got lower scores. After being exposed to the approaches, their mean scores increased. It can be implied that through the use of ORSA, the students think and question that they have learned through the persuasion of the teacher, they believed in themselves and in what they have learned. ORSA and K to 12, the two groups of student-participants have different levels of grammatical competence. As observed in the obtained means, students exposed to ORSA achieved higher grammatical competence as compared to students exposed to K to 12 teaching approach. This connotes that ORSA is proven effective in enhancing the grammatical competence of the students

Independent learner strategies to improve second language academic writing in an online course

This article explores how 40 first-year students in a compulsory English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course undertook written tasks during a semester suddenly undertaken online. The university in Japan described here provided on-demand lessons via the Learning Management System (LMS) during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Students prepared three-minute reflective videos as part of their course work describing their strategies to improve their second language (L2) academic writing and their perceptions of how these strategies affected their learning. These videos were transcribed, coded, and analysed. The use of Machine Translation (MT) to proofread work before submission was used by 58% of the participants, of whom 45% report improved assignment grades and higher levels of confidence in their L2 writing skills. Results suggest that learners should be encouraged to use MT for this step in the L2 academic writing process.

DEPENDENT-INDEPENDENT LEARNER: EXPERIENCES OF A NOVICE INDEPENDENT LEARNER DURING AN MA STUDY IN A UK UNIVERSITY

Purpose of the study: This paper reveals the feelings and experiences of the researcher regarding the transition from a familiar to an unfamiliar context and understanding the concept of 'independent learners and 'independent learning' throughout a one-year MA in the University of Southampton, UK. Methodology: Written in the form of a narrative by employing a diary, this article presents a brief account (a snapshot) of the researcher’s journey, which includes the struggles, gains, and losses during survival as a novice independent learner who had come from a completely different culture and educational setting. Main findings: The study concludes that training (guiding and facilitating) novice independent learners and developing their metacognitive awareness about ‘independent learning’ might help in empowering and producing efficient independent learners. Applications of this study: The paper proposes some useful suggestions for the teachers and educators in learner training, based on and limited to the researcher’s observations and experiences. Novelty/Originality of this study: Based on the theory regarding meta-cognitive awareness and discussing it as a vital part of learner training and the significant role that it plays in dealing with the challenges of independent learning,

THE USE OF PROJECT BASED LEARNING AND PEER ASSESSMENT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

Project Based Learning is a learning method to encourage knowledge building through collaborative learning and usually integrated with real world concerns. Peer Assessment is an effective way to may help learners reflect on their own project work and improve their speaking skill. In addition the peer-assessment is useful as guidance for the students’ projects. This research aimed to find out the impact of project based learning and peer assessment learning to improve students’speaking skill and the benefits of PBL and Peer Assessment. This research was conducted at the seventh grade of SMPN 2 Babelan-Bekasi, from 12 September until 10 October 2017. It involved only one class is the students of VII.1 in SMPN 2 Babelan-Bekasi. This class consists of 30 students with 17 females and 13 males. This research was a classroom action research that consist of three cycles. Each cycles has four steps, they are; planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The researcher answered the research questions by using four instruments such as observation, interview, test and questionnaire. The results of this research revealed that first, PBL and Peer Assessment could improve students` speaking skill. Second, talked a lot, they were participating each other, it motivated them to speak more, to be an enthusiasm and to be independent learner. Besides, the number of errors in speaking components was significantly decreased after they were encouraged to assess by peer. Based on the theories and previous studies, it can be concluded that there were positive effects; the peer assessment which apply in Project Based Learning (PBL) has positive in teaching speaking. Peer assessment helped the students in speaking English and peer corrective about their performance, so it built their motivation in developing of speaking skill.

It Takes Courage to be an Independent Learner

In developing independent learners the complex associated information literacy skills needs to inculcated in our learners. In this process the information literacy skills are usually broken down into key components to facilitate their acquisition in manageable steps. As learners mature this scaffolding of information literacy skills needs to be removed to enable agile learners. To ensure that this unscaffolding of the process is supported, educators need to effectively build these information literacy skills into the planned assessment for learning to all relevant assignments. To provide the necessary time for one-to-one assessment the author this paper believes that educators need to move in the direction of the flipped classroom.

Supporting the Needs of the Independent Learner Within Higher Education

This chapter offers a case study in adaptive personalized learning for higher education learners. The chapter presents a postgraduate recommender system for educational pathway to aid with online support towards selecting suitable transferable skills depending on department and captures a current snapshot of the current trends that the university is facing.

Letters and meanings. A gate to Arabic Language

Letters and meanings is a tool for achieving an A.1 level in Arabic (according to the Common European Framework). Its main goal is to familiarize students with reading and writing the Arabic language. It is aimed at English-speaking students in a learning environment with an instructor. The independent learner, however, will also find recommendations and strategies for study as well as diverse materials and resources which will allow him or her to get acquainted with the new system of written signs and sounds which he or she hopes to learn. Letters and meanings is presented like an Arabic book, to be read from right to left. If you choose to print it, be careful and bind it to the right in order to use it properly. The book begins with an introductory and theoretical unit about the Arabic language. It is divided into eight teaching units, plus one review unit, and concludes with an answer key to the exercises, classroom vocabulary, some brief notes on Arabic calligraphy, and two glossaries. All of this is accompanied by downloadable mp3 audio files.