The popularity of online crowdsourcing platforms was slowly increasing among language learners before the pandemic, but COVID-19 changed the educational systems worldwide. This study aims to uncover ...whether or not, and if ‘YES’, how the attitudes and habits of language learners concerning the use of crowdsourcing materials in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia and Poland changed during the pandemic.
To compare the pre-and during the covid crowdsourcing tool usage, the cross-culturally appropriate questionnaire utilised in the pre-COVID-19 period was used again. The collected data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively to identify the differences between the periods.
The study’s findings showed that the shift from face-to-face to online learning significantly affected the development of crowdsourcing platforms worldwide and their employment in the studied countries. The results also demonstrated that a combination of factors, such as reduced interactions with teachers and peers, an increase in workload, and a lack of support on the part of institutions, led to students taking responsibility for their learning. The number and characteristics of the popular platforms changed from country to country since expectations from students varied.
In spring 2020 both teachers and learners experienced the interruption of education as it had been established for over 150 years and seemed to be unchangeable. The paper focuses on students’ ...perspectives on how they perceive the changes in learning due to the pandemic educational emergency response based on the results of a survey of students in four countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Poland and Turkey. We aim at discussing the data collected at the end of the 2019-2020 Spring semester. The research focuses on the accessibility of the tools for learning, modes of instruction, as well as interaction patterns. In addition, we present students’ opinions on the difficulties they experienced, the learning strategies they adopted and what aspects of online learning should remain as a regular educational practice after the pandemic period.
Online crowdsourcing sites/platforms have become popular in recent years, and the first aim of this study is to uncover what crowdsourcing resources language learners in Turkey, Bosnia and ...Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia and Poland know about and use. The other two goals of the study are to uncover what crowdsourcing games or websites the students in the studied countries utilise as in- or/and outside-class activities, how enjoyable they find them and whether or not students contribute to the further development of those crowdsourcing resources. The data for the study were collected using a cross-culturally appropriate online questionnaire in English designed specifically for this study. The questionnaire comprised two parts. Section one gathered information about the employment of the crowdsourcing sites, tools, and games, while section two helped compile a detailed picture of the participants’ background. The data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitively, keeping in mind country and context-specific variables. The results show that there are both intriguing similarities and differences in the ways informants in the examined countries perceive, employ, evaluate and contribute to the available crowdsourcing resources when learning foreign languages. Therefore, the findings might provide insights for language teachers planning to incorporate crowdsourcing sites and crowdsourced activities in their classes as well as for platform/game creators aiming to develop resources with cross-cultural usefulness and validity.
The COVID-19 outbreak forced many changes in education, including teaching techniques, teacher-student interactions, materials, and assessment practices. The present study aims to uncover students’ ...opinions on the types of exams they took, their evaluation of the testing/ assessment practices they experienced, whether online learning influenced the way they prepared for the exams, whether they would like to keep the testing/assessment practices in the new normal and how they evaluate the teacher’s role as an assessor. The data for the study were collected in Türkiye (TUR), the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM), Poland (POL), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) using cross-culturally valid questionnaires including items asking students to evaluate the teaching, assessment, and interaction skills of their teachers during the first “emergency online teaching semester”. Both closed- and open-ended items were included in the data collection tools. Responses to the items in the questionnaires were analysed quantitatively, keeping in mind country and context-specific peculiarities. The study results show similarities in the ways students were evaluated and their perceptions of evaluation procedures during the COVID-19 period, as well as contextual differences in the four countries.
It is now commonly accepted that academic discourses tend to provide venues for participants to interact where the producer needs to display an awareness of the audience, and metadiscourse (MD) is ...the set of tools enabling the involved parties to establish relationships. MD strategies allow writers to project themselves into their work, signal their communicative intention, influence their readers and align, and distance themselves from cited materials (Hyland,1998, 2005a, 2005b). The problem is, however, that the rules of engagement differ from one culture to another, and from one specific genre to another (e.g., educational vs. professional), and according to Bizzell (1992), academic writers or speakers would not be able to produce texts fulfilling their aims unless they are closely acquainted with the intricate conventions followed in the particular genre by the particular discourse community. The overall aim of researchers exploring academic discourses, therefore, revolves around how such an interaction is built and sustained.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this study we are concerned with the informal dimension of formative assessment (FA) in an L2 classroom. We examine those instances that are embedded into everyday learning activities and that ...emerge in and through classroom interaction contingently, continuously and flexibly. Drawing on the methodological underpinnings of Conversation Analysis (CA), we uncover the emergence of instances of reference to a past learning event (RPLE) in L2 classroom interaction and highlights its relevance to informal FA. Data from a corpus of video-recordings of an EFL classroom in a preparatory school at tertiary level are presented. It is seen that RPLEs occur when the teacher contingently extends the main instructional activity to focus on what was presented interactionally earlier. In this way, the teacher seeks evidence of student knowledge and understanding and/or acts on the negative evidence already elicited in order to enhance learning and shape instruction. The analysis of RPLE instances also brings evidence for the relation between learning and assessment together with the tracking of language learning behaviour in subsequent learning events from the perspective of CA-SLA. As a result, this study bridges a gap between language assessment and classroom research by suggesting that teachers’ ability to informally assess for formative purposes is an integral part of their classroom interactional competence.
In the study reported here we focus on proverbs in English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks and how the pithy structure and the “wisdom”-loaded content of proverbs can contribute to the ...development of foreign language learners’ communicative competence as defined by Bachman (1990). We discuss how the most frequently used coursebooks in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) were identified through a questionnaire administered to 127 first and fourth-year EFL pre-service teachers. We also show how these popular coursebooks were scrutinised for the inclusion and presentation of proverbs by using content analysis and an analysis form to uncover (1) the number of the proverbs incorporated, (2) whether or not the presentation of the proverbs in the coursebooks would foster the development of the competencies identified by Bachman (1990), and (3) whether they were among the most known and frequently used proverbs in present-day English (i.e., currency). The findings reveal a number of problems related to the frequency and currency of the included proverbs, and to the adequacy of the presentation of the proverbs in the examined coursebooks to help students develop their communicative competence.
This study investigates Reference to a Past Learning Event (RPLE) in an L2 instructional setting using Conversation Analysis (CA). It involves the analysis of video-recordings of an EFL class (55 ...classroom hours) in a preparatory school at a state university. Using CA, it uncovers how teachers make RPLE and contingently extend the main instructional activity by focusing on what was presented in past learning events in and through interaction. The micro-analysis generated recurring sequential patterns of RPLE in teacher follow-up, response and initiation turns. Regardless of the sequential position, RPLE confirms what is shared and establishes common ground, continuity and temporality in an L2 instructional setting. However, it is also found that what makes RPLE relevant varies with different sequential positions. Besides, the analysis demonstrates that RPLE creates learning opportunities and results in socially displayed and situated recollection of what was studied earlier. Finally, the findings contribute to the literature on remembering, offer a methodological suggestion for making a temporal analysis of classroom talk, and thereby, have implications for L2 Classroom Interactional Competence and L2 teacher education.
•‘Reference to a past learning event’ is uncovered as an interactional phenomenon.•RPLE emerges in teacher follow-up, response and initiation turns in different ways.•RPLE results in emergent language learning behaviors and opportunities.•RPLE shows remembering and temporality in an L2 classroom interaction.•The findings add to the understanding of the complex mechanisms of L2 CIC.
This paper examines how the bald-on-record refusal ‘NO’ of a request is evaluated by male and female native speakers of Turkish. It also tries to uncover whether or not the distance between the ...interlocutors and the gender of the individual refusing the request affect the way refusals are classified on the polite-rude continuum. The data analysed in the study were gathered in three steps from 240 university students using natural observations, questionnaires and interviews. The analyses of the data were done using SPSS and CLAN CHILDES programs. Results of the study show that the relationship between the variables social distance, gender and the interpretation of the level of politeness of the refusals is multifaceted and dynamic. Therefore, instead of claiming universality for the politeness rules,it is advisable to try to uncover the politeness rules that are validin different contexts for the different interlocutors taking part in the interaction. The study also shows that evaluating only the data produced by the speakers and ignoring the evaluations of the hearers may lead to misinterpretations of the politeness data. Therefore, if the aim is to uncover the ‘real rules of politeness’, it is suggested that the hearer’s evaluations of the utterances should be taken into consideration too.
This study aims to reveal the situation about proverb instruction in EFL classrooms by seeking future English teachers’ opinions. It is based on the argument that proverbs are an important part of ...cultural references, figurative, functional and formulaic language; thereby, they lend themselves well to enhancing communicative competence. This study investigates what EFL student-teachers think and feel about English proverb instruction, how they conceptualize proverbs, how they define their knowledge and use of English proverbs, and what they think about the extent to which their English teachers and coursebooks at high school taught English proverbs. In doing so, a questionnaire was designed and administered to freshman EFL student-teachers and semi-structured interviews were conducted with volunteers. The findings revealed that despite those student-teachers’ positive attitudes towards proverb instruction, they did not view their knowledge of English proverbs as well as the teaching of proverbs by their English teachers and coursebooks at high school sufficient enough. Furthermore, traditional definitions were reflected in the participants’ conceptualization of proverbs. The study has important implications for curriculum and syllabus design in which knowledge of phraseology in general and proverbs in particular should be incorporated as an important component of learners’ language competence.
PDF
