Beyond Words (Journal)
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A Computer-based 21st Century Prototype
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This paper describes a prototype computer-based reading comprehension program. It begins with a short description, at a general level, of theoretical issues relating to the learning of comprehension skills in a foreign/second language learning. These issues cover such areas as personal meaning-making on the basis of individual differences and the need for individualized intervention to maximize the comprehension process. Modern technology facilitates this process and enables simultaneous support of large numbers of students. Specifically, from a learning perspective, the program focuses on students’ personal understandings while, from a reading perspective, the construction of meaning is based on an interactive model where both high-level (global, inferential) structures are elicited/studied as well as low-level structures (e.g. vocabulary, grammar). These principles are strengthened with research findings from studies in awareness and language processing based on eye-movement analysis. As part of its reading comprehensions focus, the system also has a strong commitment to the development of critical thinking skills, recognized as one of the most important 21st Century skills. The program is then described in detail, including its ability to store students’ responses and to be administered through standard learning management systems. Finally, an outline of planned future developments and enhancements is presented
Teacher Perfectionism and Iranian English Language Learners’ Motivation and Achievement
Get PDFEducational psychology has recently reflected a policy shift from focusing on “what goes wrong” in schools, including psychological, physical, and educational disabilities, to recognizing and promoting strengths and positive aspects of students and their environments. Within this scope, some lines of research have examined the extent to which setting personal high standards influences such positive outcomes as educational achievement and high level of motivation. The present study was motivated by the concern that Iranian English language teachers' setting high standards, i.e. perfectionism, may predict English language learners’ motivation and language achievement. Through cluster random sampling, a total of 30 English language teachers with more than one year of experience and 300 elementary English language learners were selected from English Language Institutes in Fars province, Iran. Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism scale and Motivations Underlying English Language Learning questionnaire were used to measure teachers' perfectionism and learners’ language learning motivation, respectively. The learners' final scores in the English courses were collected as a measure of their language learning achievement. The result of simple regression analysis revealed that the teachers' perfectionism did not predict English language learners’ motivation and language achievement. In other words, Iranian English language teachers' perfectionism did not account for any variance in these two variables of interest.
Keywords: Perfectionism, Motivation, Language Learning Achievemen
Improving Elementary School Students’ English Vocabulary Through Local Cultural Content Materials
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Elementary students of a certain public school in Indonesia had difficulties in learning English. One of the crucial problems was learning English vocabulary. In an attempt to help the students learn and improve English vocabulary, the researchers decided to use CAR to teach English vocabulary with local cultural content materials. The aim of this study was to investigate how the teaching of English vocabulary with local cultural content materials contributed to the improvement of the students’ English vocabulary mastery. The topics covered in the materials were selected based on schemata theory. Vocabulary learning process was done through several activities provided in the materials: classroom and outside vocabulary learning. The results showed that the teaching of local cultural content materials have contributed to the improvement of the Elementary students’ vocabulary mastery. The schematic knowledge found in the familiar topics has aroused the students’ interest and motivation in learning English vocabulary. Students who were more familiar with the topics could respond to the vocabulary learning better than those who were not familiar with. The vocabulary mastery was more successful only if the students participated in both classroom and outside vocabulary learning process.
Keywords: Vocabulary Mastery, Vocabulary Improvement, Local Cultural Content Materials, Vocabulary Learning, Schemat
Assessing Learner Autonomy and EFL Vocabulary Acquisition: A Case Study
Get PDFThe importance of autonomy learning is widely acknowledged in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Asian contexts. The present study attempted to report low proficiency level students’ autonomous vocabulary learning. The first part of the present study focused on exploring how learners perceived and experienced their autonomous vocabulary learning, with a questionnaire and group discussion applied to collect data. During the second part of the study, the data were discussed collaboratively by six teachers to identify the different approaches utilized by learners. Priorities included setting weekly goals, self-planning and self-monitoring the process of learning vocabulary. Results also revealed that a weak ‘top-down’ approach in implementing learner autonomy is inadequate. Teachers need to provide scaffolding skills tailored to learners’ context-specific needs, for which a strong ‘bottom-up’ approach is more appropriate in supporting autonomous learning. In this case, classroom time should be allocated to demonstrate the strategies and teachers should work collaboratively to develop resources and materials for learners’ autonomous vocabulary learning. The present study also addressed the need for establishing an effective intervention for supporting learner autonomy.
Keywords: learner autonomy, vocabulary learning, self-plan, self-monito
What are Bogus Journal
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The purpose of this paper is to warn novice researchers/writers of the danger of publishing in journals of questionable quality (often referred to as bogus, scam or predatory journals) and highlight key characteristics of these journals and their method of operation. Understanding the characteristics and how they operate could help us avoid publishing our work in scam journals. These journals claim (falsely) that they employ a blind review process by experts in the field, promise quick turnaround, claim legitimacy by quoting the ISSN and listing a number of databases in which they are indexed (e.g., EBSCO, DOAJ and PROQUEST). The paper outlines 15 reasons why as members of the academic community we should shun journals of dubious quality. The key message of this paper is that before we send our scholarly work to academic journals, we need to invest time doing our due diligence, making sure that our target journal is a legitimate and respectable outlet for our work
Tense Usage in Selected Humanities and Science Dissertations
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Graduate students are usually not sure of the appropriate tense to use in each rhetorical section of their dissertations in their disciplines. Even style guides provide little information regarding tense usage in academic texts. This paper describes a study in which frequency and usage of types of tense were compared in selected dissertations from the humanities and sciences drawn from Kenyan Public Universities. It was found that graduate research students in both humanities and sciences preferred the simple present and simple past as primary tense forms. It also emerged that authors have to alternate verb tenses even in the same rhetorical section of a dissertation to achieve particular communicative purposes. Suggesting that choices for tense in dissertations are a function of the epistemology and ideology of the disciplines, the paper proposes a genre-based approach to teaching those preparing to write their dissertations
Conversation Partnerships: An Educational Tool for Cross-Cultural Understanding
Get PDFThis article describes one study of conversation partnerships between American students enrolled in teacher education programs, and international students enrolled at the same large midwestern university. Twenty-nine pairs of partners during one 15-week semester were directed to meet at least 10 times minimally 30 minutes each. Topics for initial meetings were recommended, to help partners get started. As the semester progressed, topics were based on interests and needs of the partners. Three data sources were collected and analyzed. International students were surveyed at the end of the program with demographic and open-ended question about their perceived outcomes of the experience. American students were required to keep and submit weekly logs of the meetings and their thoughts about the meeting. These students were further required to write an end-semester reflection paper, exploring their learning in areas of: better understanding the English language; learning about other cultures; and any other meaningful insights about the experience. These latter two data sources were analyzed qualitatively, using constant comparative analysis. Results of the study, overall, were positive with interesting insights from participants. International students reported improving their English. American students had their “eyes opened” repeatedly about other cultures. Many of the partners reported the forming on genuine and hopefully sustainable friendships. Often, the partnerships went beyond the course requirements spending evenings, or weekend days together
Strategies for teaching and learning vocabulary
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This article presents an overview of current research on second language vocabulary learning and proposes eight strategies for teaching and learning vocabulary. First, to facilitate effective vocabulary teaching, choosing high-frequency words is essential. Teachers of vocabulary also need to add explicit, intentional teaching to incidental learning. In addition, vocabulary learning strategies including morphological awareness and lexical inference provides a platform by which learners can improve both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. This article also suggests that productive vocabulary knowledge needs more attention than receptive vocabulary knowledge, and that available textbooks seldom address vocabulary sufficiently. In summary, it is very important for all learners and teachers to acknowledge that learning vocabulary is incremental in nature, and we should develop a principled, long-term program for teaching and learning vocabulary