Utilizing a pre- and posttest research design, with an instructional intervention of good practices in notetaking, the notes taken by examinees during a computer-based listening comprehension test ...prior to and following the instructional intervention were examined for particular notetaking strategies. Questionnaires probed perceptions of the frequency of use and helpfulness of the notetaking strategies. Also investigated were relationships between the strategies and performance on a multiple-choice listening comprehension measure and integrated listening/writing and listening/speaking tasks and whether the brief instructional intervention affected examinees' notes and performance on the three tasks. Results showed that examinees made little use of efficiency and marked organizational notetaking strategies. While the intervention had no effect on examinees' notetaking strategies or on their task performance, students' posttest notetaking strategies and task performance were significantly related to their pretest notetaking strategies and task performance. Moreover, notetaking and test performance were moderately related: Two notetaking strategies that most consistently related to performance on all three tasks were the number of content words in the notes and the number of test answers recorded in the notes. Efficiency strategies represented a cognitively complex category worthy of further investigation.
This article reports the results of a study of the effectiveness of computer‐assisted language learning (CALL) in the acquisition of English as a second language by Arabic‐ and Spanish‐speaking ...students in an intensive program. The study also examined two student variables—time spent using and attitude toward the CALL lessons—as well as four cognitive/affective characteristics—field independence, ambiguity tolerance, motivational intensity, and English‐class anxiety. English proficiency was measured by the TOEFL and an oral test of communicative competence. Results indicated that the use of CALL lessons predicted no variance on the criterion measures beyond what could be predicted by the cognitive/affective variables. In addition, it was found that time spent using and attitude toward CALL were significantly related to field independence and motivational intensity. These results indicate that (a) certain types of learners may be better suited to some CALL materials than other students and (b) it is necessary to consider many learner variables when researching the effectiveness of CALL.
This article reports on a study done to determine how nonnative English speakers studying in U.S. colleges and universities perceive their language learning experiences and how they use English in ...academic settings. Open‐ended interviews, using a structured set of topics, were conducted with 80 students. Areas investigated included the value of the U.S. language training program, how the program addressed specific skill areas, how out‐of‐class experience contributed to language learning, what teacher qualities were valued, and how English was used in the academic setting. In general, students supported the design of most intensive ESL training, but they raised questions about some skill‐area emphasis. A strong desire for more interactive instruction was expressed as well as an appreciation for personality, rather than technical, qualities of teachers. Students indicated the importance in academic work of the receptive skills of reading and listening over the productive skills of speaking and writing.
Describes a movement in Japan that is taking English teaching from an out-of-context grammar and vocabulary emphasis to a conversational and contextual emphasis. Shows specific approaches that ...feature student-centered work as opposed to teacher-imposed exercises. (TB)
Practical courses give language students the opportunity to apply writing skills they are acquiring in a real-world setting. In a third-year course in Spanish composition and conversation, writing ...for the media allows students to take advantage of community resources by doing on-site observation of local television, radio or newspaper production. Students learn how to write in journalistic style and also read texts by well-known authors.
This study investigated the perceptions of teachers about the benefits of video classes at Osmangazi University Foreign Languages Department (OGU FLD) Preparatory School. The study also investigated ...whether teachers at one level perceived the material to be more beneficial than teachers did at another level, how teachers thought they used the video materials in video classes, and how teachers connected what they were doing in the video classes to the main course.The data was collected through a preliminary questionnaire and interviews with the teachers. The questionnaire was distributed to fifteen teachers who were teaching video classes at the time of the study and it consisted of three parts. The questions in the first part asked for background information about the teachers, while the questions in the second and third parts requested information about the teachers’ current experience and reactions to the video classes. The results of the questionnaire were used to select teachers for interviews. Two teachers with differing views from each level (elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate) were selected. The interviews were divided into two main parts, each of which consisted of 10 questions. The questions in the first part were related to the first and second research questions, which were about the perceptions of the teachers in OGU FLD about the benefits of video use in the current program and whether teachers at one level, as a group, perceived the materials to be more beneficial than teachers at another level. The questions in the second part were asked to get information to answer the third and fourth research questions which were about how teachers thought they used the video materials in video classes and how the teachers connected what they are doing in the video classes to the main course.The data collected through the questionnaire was recorded in charts for each part. The data was then analyzed in order to select the six teachers, attempting to find two at each level with differing views. The data collected through the interviews were analyzed by categorizing the responses to the interview questions under common themes and response patterns.The results of the study revealed that all the teachers perceived the video classes at OGU FLD to be beneficial for their students in several ways. They considered video classes beneficial particularly for the improvement of students’ listening, speaking, vocabulary, and grammar skills.The results showed that the way the teachers used the video materials was quite similar, as the core video material and the supplemental material were guided. However, the way the teachers used the movies was completely up to the teachers; there were not any suggested procedures in the curriculum.The results also showed that the core video material was internally connected to the main course book. The supplemental video material was used to compensate for missing points in the core material such as particular grammar points. There was no connection between the movies and the main course.
This study investigated the attitudes of students and teachers at Osmangazi University Foreign Languages Department (OGU-FLD) Preparatory School toward the video classes being held separately in the ...program. Moreover, the study aimed at exploring the perceptions of the students and teachers about the helpfulness and effectiveness of the video classes in general and the video materials in particular, about the problems that the students and teachers thought existed in these classes. Students’ and teachers’ suggestions as to how these classes could be made more effective were also elicited in this study. One hundred students and three video class teachers at OGU-FLD Preparatory School participated in this study.The data was collected through a student questionnaire and through teacher interviews. The student questionnaire was distributed to 50 Upper-intermediate students and 50 Pre-intermediate students. The questions in the questionnaire were categorized under four sections including multiple-choice, Likert-scale, or openended questions.Three video class teachers at OGU-FLD Preparatory School were in charge of the video classes. These three teachers were interviewed. The questions aimed to discover the teachers’ attitudes toward teaching with video, their opinions about the impact and efficacy of the current video classes, and their opinions and suggestions on how the video classes in the program could be held in the most effective way for the learners. The data was analysed by using quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques.The results of the study indicated that the general attitude of the students toward learning English through video was positive. Students found this kind of learning as an enjoyable learning experience and they generally agreed that the video class provides a good opportunity for improving their language skills. The results of the study also indicated the proficiency level of the students did not play any role in their attitudes toward the role of video in learning a second language. Students from both upper-intermediate and pre-intermediate levels generally agreed that the video class and the video materials used in this class were helpful and effective especially for the improvement of their listening skill, speaking skill, pronunciation, and vocabulary knowledge. However, they also revealed some problematic aspects of the video classes and gave their suggestions that they thought could contribute to solve these problems.The results of the interviews with the three video class teachers revealed that these teachers have positive attitudes toward teaching in video classes. Students and teachers had similar opinions about the helpfulness and effectiveness of the video classes and the video materials, and about the problems and their solutions. The findings of the study provide valuable insights into how to make video classes more effective which should be taken into consideration. In particular, the positive attitudes of the teachers and students toward video classes suggest that video classes should be integrated into foreign language programs as an important tool for language teaching and learning.
The recent literature in language teaming and teaching mainly focuses on language teamers and their perspectives about the language learning process. It is now known that any teaching and teaming ...will be affected by factors beyond the four walls of the classroom, and these factors will be effective on the motivation of the learners, their attitude and the effort they are prepared to make to achieve their goals. One of the current challenges in second and foreign language teaching, regardless of the method, is to provide teamers a classroom environment in which they can adopt positive attitudes, a high motivation and use appropriate strategies in order to become more effective language learners.On the other hand, it is also known that language rnxiety prevents learners from adopting effective learning practices in the classroo situation. As a result, second/foreign language teaching recently aims at providing students with a teamercentered and anxiety-free classroom environment to help them become more successful language learners.This study was designed in order to find out the sources of foreign language anxiety Turkish students learning English as a foreign languaage experience in two productive skills; speaking and writing. The range and degree of foreign language anxiety of 36 intermediate level language teamers were ttermined by using the questionnaire FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale), and considering the answers they gave to the questionnaire each of the subjects was assigned to one of the three anxiety levels, high, medium and low. All of the subject were then told to keep personal diaries about their speaking and writing classes for four weeks. Randomly selected 12 subjects were also interviewed in order to credit or discredit evidence of foreign language anxiety. Meanwhile, all the subjects were administered the questionnaire BALLI (Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory) to examine whether or not their beliefs about the language teaming had any effects in their anxiety.Analysis of the learners' comments both in the diarles and the interviews for each skill revealed three main sources of foreign language anxiety. Learners reported that the anxiety they felt caused by personal reasons -negative self assessment of ability, self comparison to other students, high personal expectations, and their irrational beliefs about language learning-; their teachers' manner -towards teamers and towards their error- and the teaching procedures in speakirtg -speaking in front of the classrooın, making oral presentations, studying individually-, and writing classes -writing in the paragraph form-. Finally, implications of the findings for foreign language teaching/ teaming are also discussed in the study.
Community colleges require real-life courses to prepare people in different professions to deal with speakers of Spanish. This article offers the experience with developing and teaching a course in ...Survival Spanish at Sauk Valley Community College over a period of 15 years as a possible model for such courses.
The developing oral English of approximately 100 second language learners (four intact classes) was examined in this study. The learners were native speakers of French (aged 10-12 years) who had ...received a 5-month intensive ESL course in either grade 5 or grade 6 in elementary schools in Quebec. A large corpus of classroom observation data was also analyzed. Substantial between-class differences were found in the accuracy with which students used such English structures as progressive -ing and adjective–noun order in noun phrases. There was some evidence that these differences (which were not correlated with performance on listening comprehension tests) were due to differences in teachers' form-focused instruction. These findings are discussed in terms of current competing views of the role of form-focused instruction in second language learning.
