Category: ELT Articles and Research Papers

Vol. 4 Issue 49 – Eric Roth's ESL Tip: Making Accurate, Sound Comparisions in ESL/EFL Conversation Classes

ESL teachers, especially working with oral skills and pronunciation, face a difficult task. Is there a single, correct form of English that should be taught? Should all English speakers sound like Americans or British? What if EFL students plan to study in Australia or Canada? The question is far more complicated than many English pronunciation instructors admit.

Vol. 4 Issue 49 – Conference: '3rd International Conference on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching 2013 (FLLT 2013)', Thailand, March 15-16

The 3rd FLLT International Conference, organized by the Language Institute of Thammasat University, Thailand, aims to bring together researchers, practitioners and educators with common interests in language learning and pedagogy at all levels from around the world. This biennial conference under the theme ‘Research, Renovation and Reinforcement: Enhancing Quality in Language Education’ will promote the dissemination of research in the related fields so that theory is effectively applied to classroom practice and the quality of language teaching can be strengthened in the contexts of language as a means of international communication.

Vol. 4 Issue 48 – Eric Roth's Grammar Teaching Tip: Do Our Students Need to Swim in English or Pass Grammar Tests?

Do our students need to swim in English? Or do they need to focus on avoiding minor grammar mistakes? Should we encourage our students to speak as much English as possible? Or should we paralyze our students with exaggerated fears?

ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 47

ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#47 | November 19, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036 Video: How to Teach Listening Skills in the ESL Classroom Article: ‘Shopping Mysterious Items in an Unfamiliar Language’ by Rolf Palmberg Conference: ‘Outcome Based Teaching and Learning Of English’, March 1-3, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu Research Paper: ‘The Use of Technology in Teaching English… Continue reading ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 47

Vol. 4 Issue 47 – Research Paper: 'The Use of Technology in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Secondary Schools of Iran' by Dr. Fatemeh Alipanahi

Today the researchers and philosophers are emphasizing the need for all learners to master what they call “21st century skills”. These skills are central to another goal for learners in the technology-filled lives they may face: media, technological, and information literacy and being able to choose, interact with, and produce technology-based media. So, this study aims to tell us how well to use computers or in other words technology in second and foreign language instruction; because the power of the machine lies in how well it gets used and integrated into the daily classroom activities. And also tells us about the most useful technological tools for teaching language skills in EFL classes. I tried to find out the answers to these research questions by the use of technology-based teaching methods for about one month in a high school and also I had an interview with an English teacher to get her opinions, too. It should be mentioned that in this study some factors such as gender, background knowledge, etc were not taken into account. Besides these the results of the study revealed that EFL teachers who use technology mostly in teaching English are more successful than those who use the traditional methods which aren’t technology-based ones. So in order to succeed teachers should use many types of computer technologies in schools.

Vol. 4 Issue 47 – Article: 'Shopping Mysterious Items in an Unfamiliar Language' by Rolf Palmberg

Prior to inviting foreign-language learners to engage in traditional communicative activities, i.e. tasks that require them to move around in the classroom and ask their classmates specific questions, teachers usually pre-teach the new vocabulary. Common teaching techniques used include mime, pictures, and translation of foreign-language words into the learners’ mother tongue. The meaning of new words are sometimes prompted by using carefully designed sentences that help learners make correct inferences and by encouraging them to look for cognate words that may exist in the foreign language and their mother tongue. Furthermore, learners may be asked to use dictionaries (whether physical or online versions) to find out what the new words mean. (For more examples of ways to pre-teach vocabulary, see Nation 2008.)

ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 46

ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#46 | November 12, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036 Video: Teaching Listening: Gist & Detail Article: ‘How to Get a TEFL Job in South Korea’ by Matthew Clark Symposium: ‘Literary London: The Ages of Dickens and Victoria’, Oxford and Cambridge Club, London, December 15–17 Video: Jack C. Richards on Teaching Principles Conference: ’7th International… Continue reading ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 46

Vol. 4 Issue 46 – Research Paper: 'The effects of computer on language learning and teaching' by Dr. Fatemeh Alipanahi

The purpose of this study was to discuss the effectiveness of using computer on language teaching and language learning. This research was conducted using freshmen university students. The results of the study indicated that computer assisted instruction is an effective method of delivering information literacy skills Instruction. Students were able to select an appropriate database for their topic and navigate through, select, and print information that supported their focus questions with minimal involvement on the part of the teacher. These findings may also be useful for considering the likely effects of current teaching practices, subject-by-subject, level-by-level, and pedagogy-by pedagogy. A fuller treatment of the research literature on differential computer use practices will be provided in a later draft.