Beyond Words (Journal)
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Spanish use in the English classroom: a study of Dominican students in an English-only environment
Get PDFThe native language use in the target language classroom has recently gained the attention of second language acquisition research. This study analyzes such issue in the context of Dominican university students, ranging from 18 to 35 years old, studying in an English immersion program, who have been speaking their native language, namely, Spanish too often in their classrooms. This research focuses on identifying the causes for students to use their native language in the class, and their attitude towards both, Spanish and English, by implementing a survey to 37 of these students. To better understand the problem and create potential strategies to address it, firstly, literature has been visited by presenting relevant research related to second language learning and acquisition. Secondly, the methodology is explained so that the research context can be more readily understood. Subsequently, results from surveys are analyzed in the light of current second language acquisition research. As a conclusion, this study revealed that students use their native language primarily when prompted by their partners, when in need of clarification, when unable to understand a concept, and overwhelmingly as a means to making oneself clear. The teaching implications of these findings are also discussed in the end
Pedagogical tasks for collaborative digital storytelling creation: Practical design and implementation
Get PDFThis article demonstrates a step by step into digital stories creation in a language classroom that teachers may adapt or adopt for their classroom purposes. At the outset, it will explore the nature of digital storytelling and empirical evidence of digital storytelling implementation across levels. Additionally, the article proposes ideas on how collaborative learning can be integrated in the making of digital storytelling. The design and implementation of pedagogical task emphasize on giving more opportunities for students to engage in the genre based collaborative digital stories project and foster their critical thinking and creativity. At the end of this article, alternative assessment is promoted to assess the learning process as well as the students’ project of digital storytelling. Providing students with scaffolded activities, I contend that every language teacher now can empower their learners to become digital storytellers
Teachers’ Management In Planning and Implementing for the Success of EFL Learning
No full textGroup work as one of teaching techniques on the framework of communicative approach is believed to be an effective model for building students’ communicative competence. The process of applying this technique needs high skills of management of an English teacher. The English teacher has autonomy to plan and implement the group work in order to achieve an objective of EFL learning. Since the autonomy handled by the teacher, any decisions and actions taken should be considered for assuring the success of EFL learning. The teachers’ management in planning and implementing group work influenced the successful of this teaching technique. This article, which is derived and further developed based on research conducted in 2013, analyzes and discusses the way the teachers plan and implement group work for the success of EFL learning at MAN Kota Solok. The research was conducted in terms of qualitative research by involving 5 English teachers at MAN kota Solok. The research found that the teachers still needs some guidance and improvements in planning and implementing group work for students at MAN Kota Solo
Teaching English for Specific Purposes: Content Language Acquisition vs General Language Acquisition
Get PDFAn approach to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning, Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been subjects for studies. The approach has worked well and has brought the learners forward from the previous stage. The language learning outcomes in CLIL are usually made contextual, functional and communicative. In this study, the students regarded CLIL as relevant and to deliver the English language teaching in the context of their field. On the other hand, the General Language has provided support up to the extent of explaining the language grammatical points (using the terms such as complex, compound, subject, predicate, objects). Then, authentic learning materials are regarded as being relevant to their interest and the subject matter. The CLIL approach are recommended to be applied under constant observation and evaluation since the ESP world is various and multi-context. This approach is supposed to be adjusted with the local environment, students’ interest, according to the standard ESP need analysis to arrange the lesson plan. Further research on how CLIL is able to influence the students’ language mastery in a specific field is subject to be systematically conducted
The Illocutionary Acts of Environmental Persuasion in U.S. Online Newspaper Opinion Articles
No full textPersuasion, especially in written form, has been acknowledged by scholars as difficult. Success in its attempt requires complex use of, among others, pragmatics. Persuasive texts have therefore been highly researched using the speech act theory. However, a research gap existed for a study of illocutionary acts in newspaper opinion articles. To fill the gap, the current study did a qualitative textual analysis on 10 U.S. online newspaper opinion articles that talk about climate change. The analysis was conducted to discover types of illocutionary acts and persuasive strategies the writers use to successfully persuade readers. It was then found that the writers predominantly performed assertives. The second most frequently used were directives. The most preferred subtypes under these categories were, among others, informing, urging, assuring, and demanding. These preferences further revealed the writers’ persuasive strategies. The strategies were as follows: being highly implicit, being occasionally explicit, giving more information about the issue, conveying certainty and uncertainty, arousing fear, also creating a sense of urgency. These acts and strategies, according to existing theories, could increase the texts’ persuasiveness. Hence, this study establishes that when used in persuasive texts, the previously mentioned illocutionary acts and strategies can help writers to attain persuasion
The Interlanguage Pragmatics of Greetings
Get PDFThe present study centers on interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics. It investigates semantic formulas in the speech act of greeting performed by Russian EFL learners. In particular, it compares the non-native speakers’ (NNS) and native speakers’ (NS) production of semantic formulas in terms of number, frequency, and content. A Free Discourse Completion Test (FDCT) containing 16 situational prompts elicited greetings by the English NNSs and NSs. The results show that the NNSs significantly deviate from the NSs in terms of number, frequency, and content of greetings strategies, namely, greetings proper, phatic questions and phrases, address terms, and situational greetings. The differences result from negative pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic transfer, lack of appropriate linguistic means, or not fully developed pragmatic competence. Important pedagogical implications regarding pragmatic instruction are discussed. The results contribute to a better understanding of how EFL learners greet and respond to greetings. They also shed light on the discussion of L2 learners’ pragmatic competence and appropriateness
Using Computer-Based Timeline Media to Teach English Tenses
Get PDFThe difference between English and Indonesian in the aspect of verb forms poses a big problem to Indonesian learners in learning the English Tenses. Indonesian learners are often unaware of the English time concept which affects verb forms. To overcome the problem, in this three-year research, Teopilus et al. have developed computer-based timeline media to teach the English Tenses. To find out the effectiveness of the developed media, 251 students from 4 (four) different senior high schools were given the instructions of the English Tense(s) using the timeline media. These subjects were given a pretest prior to the instruction and a posttest after it. The pretest scores and the posttest scores were statistically compared using the t-test formula. To obtain the users’ opinions on the developed media, a questionnaire was distributed to 7 (seven) English teachers. The results of the data analysis yield the following findings: (1) There is a significant increase from the average of the subjects’ pre-test scores to their post-test scores, and (2) The results of the users’ questionnaires also give positive responses to the developed timeline media. This implies that the computer-based timeline media developed in this research helps Indonesian learners comprehend the English Tenses bette
English Proficiency of Secondary School Teachers in Indonesia
Get PDFResponding to the growing need to foster communicative abilities in English, schools in Indonesia are driven to make their students proficient in English. However, the majority of English teachers themselves are still not prepared to use English as a means of communication; improving their English proficiency has thus become a matter of concern. As the first phase of a larger-scale study, this present study focuses on teachers’ English proficiency. Data for this study were collected from 149 secondary school teachers of English from five regions (Palembang, Yogyakarta-Sleman, Surabaya, Ruteng, and Maluku). They were asked to self-assess their English proficiencies based on the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) guidelines as well as to do an English Proficiency assessment. Fifty-two of these participants were teachers who were completing an in-service professional education program in Surabaya. The teachers assessed their proficiencies in interpersonal communication, presentational speaking, presentational writing, interpretive listening, and interpretive reading. The English Proficiency assessment includes syllabus-oriented items, General English items, and an essay. The study also conducted in-depth interviews of selected teachers. This study found that there is a gap between the teachers’ perception of their communicative abilities in English and their actual English proficiency
A Unified Analysis of English Passive Voice and Aspects
Get PDFEnglish passive voice and aspects are generated in the same process and have the same D-structure. In a passive sentence, progressive sentence, and perfect sentence, T (tense) takes a VP headed by be or have, and be or have takes a Participle Phrase (PartP), and –en or –ingtakes a VP as its complement. Be or have in the upper VP merges with T, and the verb in the lower VP merges with Part. The specifier or complement of the lower VP moves cyclicly through the specifier of Part and the specifier of the upper verb to occupy the subject position. The single theory on the production of passive, progressive, and perfect sentences observes the principle of economy of derivation and, therefore, contributes to the explanation of the relative easiness of a child in acquiring his or her mother tongue