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Towards A Descriptive Language Learning Strategy Inventory – The Dellsi
Full text linkThe paper reports on the development of a descriptive and dynamic inventory called The Descriptive Language Learning Strategy Inventory (DeLLSI). This inventory was designed to identify learning strategies of Malaysian tertiary learners while reading an academic text for the purpose of summarizing the text. Two groups of proficient and less proficient ESL learners read and summarized an academic text orally before being interviewed to clarify doubts arising from their think alouds. The entire process was audio-recorded and then transcribed verbatim. The completed summaries were also examined to check for accuracy with a suggested summary. Statements indicating strategy use were identified from the transcripts and these were then matched with the appropriate strategy in the inventory. This helped ensure the inventory was easier to use and reduced the difficulty of identifying strategies thus ensuring uniformity in strategy identification and research. This inventory also provides a useful supplement to existing inventories because its dynamic nature enables a strategy researcher to adapt it to specific skills and tasks
The Critical Discourse Analysis Of Esl Texts
Full text linkDespite the recognized role that race and class play in second language acquisition (SLA) and instruction, little attention is paid to how to evaluate and analyze these issues in ESL texts. Drawing on examples from two adult ESL texts, this article presents a text evaluation method based upon the concept of critical language awareness which allows curriculum developers and teachers to examine issues of race and class
WHAT THE IMAGE WANTS: FROM THE PICTORIAL TO THE SOCIOCULTURAL REPRESENTATION
No full textThrough the multifarious conceptual net, the first preoccupation is to limit the image senses that will be adopted, that is, the picture, the visual, pictorial, symbolic and those related to this semantic field. The meaning ax does not separate the abstract-mental image from the concrete-external image, since we cannot remove the mental perception from the external figures that surround our social corridors. There is nothing better than the Saussurean sign to explain this relation: a new external sonorous element (concrete) can cause a mental stimulus (abstract), which leads us to an idea. It is from the external figurative that I intend to cross the symbolic to reach the representation image-representation of the exterior world made up of the symbolic, fed by the cartoon, which, true to its own nature, criticizes and denounces political-social situations
Are Self-Efficacy, Language Learning Strategies, and Foreign Language Ability Interrelated?
Full text linkThis study investigated the interrelationships among three variables: self-efficacy, language learning strategies, and language ability. The study participants were thirty-seven college students studying French at a midwestern, medium-size, university located a large metropolitan area. All the students were at the intermediate level of proficiency in French. The students’ self-efficacy was measured through a forty-item questionnaire in which they expressed their levels of certainty that they could perform learning tasks at desired levels of proficiency. Their use of language learning strategies was also measured through a forty-item questionnaire that was an adaptation of Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Their language ability in French was measured through a sixty-item cloze test. The results of the study revealed the existence of positive and statistically significant relationships among the three variables. Recommendations for second language students, programs, and instructors were suggested to help students achieve higher communicative competence
Concerns With Content-Based Instruction (Cbi) In Asian Efl Contexts
Full text linkWith the considerable amount of interest in content-based instruction (CBI) over the past decade, inevitably, CBI has found its way into Asian EFL contexts. This is largely due in part to its ‘success’ in ESL environments and its global attraction as a mode of language education for the world. Yet, in Asia, a number of significant concerns with CBI have repeatedly failed to attract much attention. These primarily relate to EFL students, EFL teachers, concept learning, and the research ‘supporting’ content-based instruction as it pertains to the negative implications of downplaying the importance of conventional language teaching. Consequently, this paper looks to examine these issues in the hopes of raising awareness of the disadvantages of using CBI in Asian EFL environments, and how it can inevitably prove problematic in such contexts
The Effect of Text-Generation on Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Iranian Efl Learners
Full text linkThe present study was undertaken to demonstrate the effect of text-generation on incidental vocabulary learning in Iranian EFL learners. To test the null hypothesis (i.e. there is no significant difference between the vocabulary average performance of the group undergone text-generation processing and the group undergone traditional vocabulary learning processes), two intact classes containing 70 sophomore female and male students of English Translation at Arak State University, Iran participated. A Nelson test of English Language Proficiency (test 250 A) was conducted at the beginning of the study to make sure that the two intact classes did belong to the same population. A multiple choice pre-test was administered at this stage to ensure the insignificant difference between the two groups. The students in the control group were advised to read the texts, whereas the subjects in the experimental group were supposed to use text-generation (reordering the texts) technique while reading the texts. It is worth mentioning that, both groups were provided with the texts in which target vocabulary items were highlighted. At the end of twelve-week period of treatment a multiple choice post-test of vocabulary(the same as pre-test)was administered in both experimental and control groups to compare the subjects' vocabulary achievement. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, the null hypothesis was rejected at 0.05 and (even at 0.01) level of significance for 68 degrees of freedom. Key words: text-generation, incidental vocabulary learning, EF
Revisiting a Structural Analysis of Folktales: a Means to an End?
Full text linkFolktales have been regarded as the simplest form of narrative and tales from various cultures have been analyzed in terms of their structure. The structural analysis of ta[1]les can be claimed to begin with Propp’s (1958/1968) Morphology of the Folktale. Following Propp’s ground-breaking morphological classification of Russian tales, studies of structural typology of folktales from different cultures have given rise to story-grammars and led to the heyday of narratology. However, with the growing interest in narrative as a social and psychological phenomenon, structural analyses of stories have come under attack. It is contended that although the explorations of story structures have resulted in interesting descriptions of different models, what is lacking is an explanation of how formal patterns are related to the story’s content. Therefore, more recent works in narratological research have called for a narrative analysis to go beyond structures. This article revisits a structure analysis of folktales. Using a Myanmar (Burmese) folktale as a tutor text, it advocates an investigation of the relationship between form, function and field of a tale, and suggests a structural analysis as a means to gain insights into the cultural determination of the narrative motif and the social purpose of storytelling.  
ASPECTS OF EMOTIONAL PROSODY IN MALAYALAM AND HINDI
Full text linkEmotional prosody is considered as the ability to express emotions. Intonation is one parameter of prosody that gives information on the production aspects of emotions. The aim was to study the intonation patterns in two languages, Malayalam and Hindi, from two different language groups in India and also to document if there are differences in the patterns produced across gender groups. Eight native speakers of Malayalam and Hindi, in the age range of 18-40 years were considered for the study (two males and two females for each of the languages). Simple sentences with five basic emotions were used as the stimuli and the samples were recorded in Motor Speech Profile software (MSP) of Computerized Speech Lab 4150. The patterns were plotted using the PHH model. Acoustic data were subjected to statistical analysis, using Mann Whitney U Test (SPSS Version 16).The results of this study reveal that across the five emotions, the terminal intonation pattern has a falling contour, except for the emotion of anger in females, which has a raising contour. This was observed in both the languages. On subjective observation, there were instances of differences in the patterns across the genders, but these were not statistically significant