The present paper attempted to measure the effectiveness of an interactive WhatsApp bot on the listening skills of Omani English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. For this purpose, 40 Omani ...intermediate EFL learners were divided into two groups: a control and an experimental in a higher education institution. A pretest was conducted to ensure the homogeneity of listening skills among all the participants. While both groups received instructions and exercises on listening in class, an interactive WhatsApp bot was designed for the experimental group to receive more instructions and training without time and place limitations. Later, a posttest and a delayed posttest were conducted to compare learners’ performance. The study results showed smooth progress of both groups in listening exams during the posttest and delayed posttest; however, the experimental group’s performance was significantly high. The findings of the study are efficacious and helpful for teachers and learners.
Nowadays, students are required to improve their speaking skill more than any other language skill. Since, speaking skill is difficult to develop in EFL classes teachers need to use effective ...strategies to teach and assess this skill. A student's ability to speak is determined by their ability to explain something or express themselves verbally. This paper aims at finding out Kurdish instructors ‘perspectives on their role on assessing EFL students in the classroom and the strategies used for assessing speaking in EFL classes. This paper tries to find out an answer to the following question: what is the Instructor’s role in the assessment process? Moreover, what are the strategies for assessing speaking in EFL classes from instructors’ perspective? Furthermore, the paper has been limited to instructors of Cihan University-Erbil and Salahaddin University-Erbil for the academic year 2022-2023. The population was (21) instructors College of Language, Education and Basic Education. The data has been conducted by questionnaire, the Tool adopted for analyzing the data is SPSS. It is concluded that the most common strategies applied by the instructors in assessment of speaking sessions were direct question and answer, interview and storytelling. Moreover, the data analysis presented that the main role that majority of the instructors gave importance to were objective assessment and rubric, taking into consideration the students interest in the topic, and the content of the conversation or discussion in addition to the interaction.
The sudden global outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019 has led to thriving online teaching, including the teaching of languages, across the world. As the online teaching of English-as-a-foreign-language ...(EFL) in Chinese universities is facing new challenges, EFL teachers have been positively exploring new solutions. To understand how EFL teachers were coping with the challenges, we set up this research as part of a larger study to examine EFL teachers’ cognitions about online teaching in response to the disruption of normal teaching plans. We did so by taking a qualitative approach through analyzing in-depth interviews with three EFL teachers from a Chinese university. Through thematic analysis we found that teachers had clear cognitions about features, advantages, and constraints of online EFL teaching and that they acquired information and communication technology (ICT) literacy through understanding students’ learning needs, online teaching practice, and the necessity of integrating traditional classroom teaching methods into online delivery. We conclude this study with a discussion on its pedagogical implications for similar contexts or colleagues facing similar challenges in other parts of the world.
The integration of computers into foreign language training appears to support the claim that effective technology use in education may improve both teaching and learning. This study aimed to ...investigate the effects of using technology, including computers, Iraq undergraduate English language instruction uses the internet and a multimedia projector. The participants were 4 EFL teachers and 40 undergraduate students studying English as their compulsory study course. The study applied in-depth interviews and questionnaires to collect data. The study found that the use of technology in English language instruction had a mixed effect. On the one hand, the technologies stimulated and inspired students to become more engaged with their lessons; on the other hand, the teachers felt more secure and the classes were more dynamic and productive when technology was used in the classroom. It was also discovered that technologies had certain unfavorable effects. The survey also revealed that not many teachers in our nation were proficient in using modern technology in the classroom. That efficient use of technology in the classroom was uncommon. They therefore recommended several training programs that would be beneficial to them. Lastly, this study made the case that implementing technology at the undergraduate level required the support of the institutions and qualified instructors.
As learner burnout and disengagement affect the functioning and performance of college learners and can also influence future career-related well-being, they can be an issue for higher education ...organizations. Conversely, the discipline of language education has experienced an emotional turn, primarily triggered by Positive Psychology, and the scholars and students have been affected by various emotions. One of the seldom mentioned constructive emotions concerning learners' disengagement and burnout is enjoyment in learning a foreign language, as has been demonstrated by literature reviews. It is important to note that this review helps scholastic institutions and policymakers in the scholastic community to take into consideration the role of constructive emotions, specifically enjoyment, and their constructive influence on language education in diminishing learners' challenges in the learning process.
This study explores the written corrective feedback (WCF) behaviors of English as a foreign language (EFL) students in an EFL context and the individual and contextual factors that shape these ...behaviors. Ten students from the English language and translation department were interviewed and their WCF behaviors were explored. The participants were aged between 19 and 23 years, and had studied at least two writing courses taught by different instructors at a Saudi University. The findings revealed that most students had positive affective attitudes toward WCF. Most of them appreciated receiving both positive and negative comments, as the former were encouraging, while the latter helped improve their writing skills. Students’ behavioral responses to WCF varied; while some students were eager to read the feedback and correct their errors, others could correct them only when a second draft was requested. Additionally, most students relied on instructors for error correction, while only a few attempted more autonomous approaches to correction using textbooks or electronic resources. This variation in behavior could be attributed to the students’ different levels of motivation to improve their writing skills and their different individual goals for the writing course. Moreover, students’ responses to WCF were influenced by contextual factors such as the type of WCF received, the instructor’s professionalism and relationship with the students, number of assignments, and time constraints.
Feedback has a crucial position in supporting the success of teaching and learning processes in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classroom setting. In addition, research in this essential topic ...should be conducted continuously. Most research on topic have been done at schools or even universities. Only few studies concentrate in non- formal education institution such as English courses. Therefore, it is reasonable to conduct this study. Employing qualitative research, this study invited eight English teachers at non-formal education institution. The study used interview as the instrument to collect data and thematic content analysis to analyze the data. The findings displayed that the participants faced challenges and having strategies in providing feedback for students. The result revealed that teachers find challenges like inappropriate response from the students and insufficient time to make it happen fully. Then, the strategies implemented to fulfill these challenges are sharing appreciation towards students’ work at the beginning, making a clear follow-up session as well as having a clear information to students, and creating a direct comment to students’ work and also adding some notes. This study will contribute more not only for non-formal education institution but also for formal education in general. Furthermore, other aspects, such as teaching approach as well as the method used may be considered as important to adjust with these findings.
Despite the fact that there has been a lot of research on online learning and the use of technology, researchers have paid very little attention to the use of information and communication technology ...after the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on the perceptions of teachers who teach at the middle and high school levels. As a result, this study aims to analyze teacher perspectives on the use of technology, information, and communication, particularly in English subjects. A mixed methods technique will be applied in this investigation. To acquire a deeper understanding of middle and high school teachers' impressions of using ICT in English language learning, researchers utilize quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from free-form writing. First, the questionnaire will be distributed to teachers using the Snowball method. After all the data from the questionnaire is received, the researcher will distribute some questions concerning the challenges, suggestions, and teachers' opinions on using ICT in English classes to obtain more in-depth information. The findings of this study show that teachers have a positive attitude toward using ICT, particularly in the teaching and learning process. One of the most important considerations is that incorporating technology into the teaching and learning process may improve the classroom atmosphere and engage students in the teaching and learning process. Future studies can explore teachers' perceptions using qualitative methods so that the data obtained will be deeper and can enrich the knowledge related to ICT use after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, job burnout of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in China has become prominent in the field of education and psychology, with the related research articles generally on ...the rise. Using the database of Web of Science (WOS) and the sub-database of Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, this paper comprehensively reviews the current situation of research on job burnout of EFL teachers in China between 2020 and 2023, from the aspects of research methods, research focuses and research findings. The literature research results show that on the whole, the research on job burnout of EFL teachers in China is still in its infancy, and that the research level is still relatively low. Based on the systematic reviews of the collected studies, we can conclude that although there is no unanimous conclusion between demographic variables and job burnout severity of EFL teachers in China, we can intervene at both the teacher and school levels to alleviate job burnout of EFL teachers. This review paper analyzes some main problems existing in the current research, for example, lack of theoretical construction and guidance, too much concentration on some research topics, lack of diversified and interdisciplinary research methods, lack of longitudinal research, and potential directions for future research are also discussed in the paper.
Objectives: This study investigates the adjective-related errors that Jordanian EFL students make in their speech and writing. Methods: Based on the researcher's observation record of his students' ...spoken and written assignments from the eighth to twelfth grades, the researcher compiled a list of adjective-related errors that were common among his students. To find out whether such errors were generalizable nationwide, 252 English language teachers, who were randomly selected, completed a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire by marking how often their students committed each adjective-related error. Results: The study showed that there were seven adjective-related errors commonly made by students, and such errors can be generalizable nationwide. The most common error was the use of adjectives with wrong prepositions. Among the potential sources of the seven errors were first language interference, failure to apply the rule completely, and intralingual overgeneralization of the rule. Conclusions: One the areas that requires special attention by Jordanian students is the use of adjectives. Assisting students to identify the causes of the adjective-related errors and laying more emphasis on using adjectives in meaningful contexts are instrumental in dealing with such linguistic errors.
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