eJournal Unika Atma Jaya (Universitas Katolik Indonesia)
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Teach my children English: Why parents wants English teaching for their children
Full text linkThis paper describes parents’ reasons for sending their children to an English language course, their expectations from the English language instruction, and the disadvantages they perceive in getting their children to learn English at their early ages. A small-scale exploratory survey using questionnaires was conducted among 46 parents whose children learn English at a private course. The results indicate that the majority of the parents are generally aware of the practical values of providing English instruction for their children and hardly perceive any disadvantages in this early English learning. Also, they expect English instruction to enable their children to perform the four language skills, notably speaking. Implications for the young learners’ first language as well as the teaching of young learners are then presented. These may offer teachers, parents, and other researchers some important points to consider
lexically-based language teaching metaphor for enhancing learning
Full text linkAlthough metaphor has been ignored, lexically-based language teaching considers metaphor as an important aspect to learn. Learning metaphor helps learners improve their general proficiency in SLA because metaphor is a key to human memory organization, so that it enhances the acquisition of vocabulary, improves comprehension, clarifies ideas, extends thought, and increases attention. As long as meaning is the center of second language learning, metaphorical meaning must also be included because metaphor is pervasive in every day language and thought. Raising students’ awareness towards metaphor helps develop their metaphorical competence, which is a requirement for native-like proficiency. The importance of metaphor in lexically-based language teaching lends support from, cognitive linguistics the theory of mental lexicon, cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, and the abundant use of metaphor in daily use
Corpus linguistics and the study of English grammar
Full text linkThis paper describes how corpus-based analyses can be employed for the study of English grammar, with a focus on case studies taken from the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LGSWE). Two major themes are developed: 1) the kinds of unexpected findings about language use that result from corpus-based investigations, and 2) the importance of register for any descriptive account of linguistic variation. Three case studies are presented: one focusing on the use of words (i.e., the most common verbs in English); the second focusing on the use and distribution of grammatical forms (i.e., the relative frequency of simple, progressive, and perfect aspect in English); and the third describing how lexis and grammatical structure can interact in complex ways (i.e., showing how verbs with the same valency patterns can have strikingly different preferences for particular valencies). In all three cases, the paper argues for the centrality of a register perspective, showing how the patterns of use vary dramatically from one register to another
The learning strategies of Taiwanese university students: English majors versus non-English majors and males versus females
Full text linkThis study intends to investigate the learning strategies of Taiwanese university students. Two groups of students – 66 English majors and 86 non-English majors – were the subjects of the study. They responded to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1989) of ESL or EFL version of 50 questions. The responses were calculated through statistical analysis in terms of frequency, mean, and standard deviation. It was found that all subjects use compensation strategies most frequently, and affective ones most infrequently. When English majors were compared with non-English majors, the former used learning strategies more frequently than the latter. Similarly, when gender was compared, female students tended to apply learning strategies more frequently than male students did. The top one and two strategies employed by all subjects were “If I can’t think of an English word, I use a word or phrase that means the same thing,” and “To understand unfamiliar English words, I make guesses.” The strategy least used was “I write down my feelings in a language learning diary.” The paper concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications of the findings
Instructing language learning strategies to promote autonomous learning
Full text linkThe paper discusses the effects of language learning strategy instruction on the improvement of the four language skills at tertiary education level. The focus of the discussion reflects two main points. The first relates to the effect of instruction in the use of language learning strategies prior to undertaking autonomous language learning in a self-access center on the improvement of the four language skills, and the second relates to the language learning strategies used in the self-access center where autonomous language learning takes place. The paper argues that language learning strategies instruction promotes autonomous language learning mode and contributes to the improvement of both the productive and the receptive skills. It is also evident that there are some other language learning strategies used during the autonomous learning in the self-access center other than those identified and used in foreign language learning. Practical application of autonomous learning mode in the self-access center in relation to the teaching of English to non-language departments at tertiary education level is also suggested
Discourse awareness and issues in EST materials design
No full textUnderstanding text structure (knowledge of discourse and genre) within specific contexts plays a very important part in EST materials development for language teaching and learning. It is argued that for students to comprehend particular texts and to learn a language well, language teaching should begin with an understanding of text structure. It is thus essential for EST teachers to be aware that linguistic patterns exist across stretches of text within different text types and an understanding of these patterns would make text comprehension and reading to learn in the content area easier. Thus, teachers need to be trained to develop discourse-based materials as an understanding of different text types can enhance language learning. This paper discusses the importance of discourse awareness and issues of design, development and application in the development of EST materials in relation to written texts by introducing frameworks for designing discourse-based materials