Facilitating Students’ Speaking Task Using YouTube During Covid-19 Pandemic

This study investigates students' perception of the use of YouTube to facilitate undergraduate students' speaking activities. The method used in this research is descriptive quantitative research. The sampling system is done randomly and takes 40 students as a sample. The questionnaire has two parts, followed by ten questions with five answer choices using a Likert scale covering strongly disagree to strongly agree. The result of the study shows that 80% of students access YouTube because YouTube is very interesting, 75% of students say YouTube is an easy media to access, 80% of students say YouTube can be used as a learning resource (80%), and 85% of students use YouTube as a medium for doing speaking tasks. The student response to the use of YouTube as the media of facilitating students' speaking tasks is very positive, where 72% of students stated they strongly agreed if the practice of speaking through YouTube was applied, and 20% of students agreed. In general, student responses in using YouTube to facilitate students speaking activities in distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic are very positive.

Questioning Strategies Applied by Lecturers in EFL Class

The purpose of this study is aimed at finding out the questioning strategies used by lecturers during teaching, the types of questions, and the reasons for using these questioning strategies in classroom interactions in the English Education Study Program. The sample in this study are three lecturers at the English Education Study Program, Faculty of Letters, Indonesian Muslim University. The sample is selected based on teaching experience and has obtained an Educator Certificate. Then, this study uses a descriptive qualitative approach, especially discourse/conversation analysis. Data collection is carried out in three stages, namely knowing the schedule, observing the online lectures, and interviewing. Furthermore, the data is analyzed into three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. Based on the description of the results and discussion, it can be concluded as follows: The questioning strategies applied by the lecturers are: (1) opening questions; (2) rhetorical questions; (3) managerial questions; (4) knowledge questions; (5) comprehension/understanding questions; (6) questions about specific information; (7) analysis questions; (8) use of pausing strategy; (9) the use of prompting strategies; (10) use of probing and prompting strategies; (11) application questions; and (12) closed questions. The purpose of the application of the questions: (1) regulate the flow/process from the beginning (apperception) to reinforcement and review at the end of the lecture; (2) provide a stimulus so that students think critically; (2) directing the student's flow of thought to focus on the discussion; (3) giving emphasis, affirmation, examples; (4) knowing the level of understanding of students in the cognitive domain from C1, C2, C3 and C4; (5) build emotional relationship with students; (6) the questions are presented using pausing, prompting and probing techniques to guide and direct students to find complete answers and equal opportunities for all students to provide responses.

Restricted and Unrestricted Syntactic Distribution of ar in Bangla

This approach examines the syntactic distribution of ar in Bangla language. Apparently, it seems to occur almost every plausible position across a clause. It may occur clause initially, internally and finally. In some extreme cases, it may occur with each word in a clause. This surface observation does not specify what its exact syntactic distribution is. So, its across clause distributional phenomenon is controversially disputed. In this paper, I shall argue that ar can be restrictedly and unrestrictedly distributed in their respective contexts, thus its apparent multiple syntactic position is a misconception. However, each syntactic distribution either restricted or unrestricted producing a distinct semantic interpretation has specific significance depending on its particular contextual circumstances. This investigation aims at enunciating how every plausible interpretation of ar can be determined based on its restricted and unrestricted syntactic distribution only which in turn reflects its forming of a constituent with the elements following it in a clause. It also shows that the distribution of ar in Bangla is both syntactically and semantically determined.

Ideological Underpinnings in President John Dramani Mahama’s 2013 State of the Nation Address

This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically.

Impact of WhatsApp on the Vocabulary Acquisition of Secondary School Students in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

The advent of technology has brought a change in the dynamics of second language teaching and learning. WhatsApp has been a common tool used among students for communicating and chatting with friends, peers, and relatives. Its commonality may be because of its easy installation as mobile application on mobile devices. Educators are beginning to explore its potentials toward seeing how it can help students in their learning. Since it is apparently a novel tool in the education sector, its usefulness in acquiring vocabulary by secondary school students is yet to be ascertained. Therefore, this study examined the impact of WhatsApp on vocabulary acquisition of secondary school students in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. This study was premised on the constructivist learning theory since WhatsApp provides students the opportunity to construct their vocabulary knowledge. The sample for the study comprised 250 students from five secondary schools randomly selected in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Data for the study were generated from the participants using self-made questionnaire. The questionnaire is structured into 5 points from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Mean and standard deviation were employed to analyse the data. Findings showed that more than half of the students believe WhatsApp is expedient in learning and acquiring vocabulary. It further revealed that the majority of the students perceive WhatsApp as an effective social network that enhances their vocabulary acquisition as it is easy to acquire new words and understand their meanings through WhatsApp. The study concluded that language teachers should devise means of adopting social media such as WhatsApp to teach their students since students are favourably disposed to learning through WhatsApp.