Category: ELT Articles and Research Papers

Vol. 5 Issue 8 – Research Paper: ‘Sentence Types: Students’ Perceptions and Productions’ by Alaa Al-Musalli and Ibtihaj Al-Harthi

This case study investigates whether students’ perceptions regarding the level of difficulty of different sentence types are reflected in their productions. Omani EFL learners’ views concerning the sentence types they believe are easy or difficult to produce are compared with the types of correct and erroneous sentences they actually produce orally and in writing.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Research Paper: ‘Reliability of Second Language Listening Self-Assessments: Implications for Pedagogy’ by Vahid Aryadoust

Language self-appraisal (or self-assessment) is a process by which students evaluate their own language competence. This article describes the relationship between students’ self-appraisals and their performance on a measure of academic listening (AL). Following Aryadoust and Goh (2011), AL was defined as a multi-componential construct including cognitive processing skills, linguistic components and prosody, note-taking, rating input to other materials, knowledge of lecture structure, and memory and concentration.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Research Paper: ‘Sentence Types: Students’ Perceptions and Productions’ by Alaa Al-Musalli and Ibtihaj Al-Harthi

Language self-appraisal (or self-assessment) is a process by which students evaluate their own language competence. This article describes the relationship between students’ self-appraisals and their performance on a measure of academic listening (AL). Following Aryadoust and Goh (2011), AL was defined as a multi-componential construct including cognitive processing skills, linguistic components and prosody, note-taking, rating input to other materials, knowledge of lecture structure, and memory and concentration.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Video: Teaching Listening: Gist & Detail

Listening skills are not passive! This teacher uses a sentence scramble and a true or false worksheet to encourage active listening of a teacher-made recording. In these ways, both the main ideas and supporting details are elicited.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Video: Teaching Vocabulary with Gradable Opposites

This video shows how effectively a simple diagram can communicate meaning. The relationship between words describing temperature is demonstrated by placing them on a scale. This technique visually defines word meaning for EFL students.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Video: Practising listening with teenagers

This research focused on the effects of bilingual instruction on the acquisition of literacy skills of preschoolers. An experimental design was used, with language of instruction as the independent variable and the different literacy skills as dependent variables. The sample consisted of preschool children belonging to an urban poor community in the Philippines.

Vol. 5 Issue 7 – Video: How to Remember Vocabulary

This research focused on the effects of bilingual instruction on the acquisition of literacy skills of preschoolers. An experimental design was used, with language of instruction as the independent variable and the different literacy skills as dependent variables. The sample consisted of preschool children belonging to an urban poor community in the Philippines.

Vol. 5 Issue 6 – Research Paper: ‘Using Children’s Literature to Explore the Issue of Exclusion: Language Learning Through Personal Connections, Multiple Perspectives and Critical Reflections’ by Hsiang-Ni Lee

Socio-cultural constructivism views reading as a holistic experience in which readers actively seek identity and make meaning of the world. Socio-cultural constructivist reading instruction recognizes the impact of one’s socio-economic background on comprehension and interpretation of a text. It also acknowledges one’s ability to identify, deconstruct and reconstruct self-positioning by critically examining the text’s messages. Although receiving more well-deserved attention in Western language education, such a constructivist notion has not yet seemed to be equally appreciated or practiced in Taiwanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms.