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Schema-theory Based Considerations on Pre-reading Activities in ESP Textbooks
Abstract
In most cases a common problem students experience in reading classes is the feeling that they know absolutely nothing about the subject they are reading about. However, this feeling may be more complex than generally thought. The problem may not be the lack of background knowledge, but rather the failure to activate that knowledge. For Ringler and Weber (1984), pre-reading activities provide a reader with necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material. These experiences involve understanding the purpose(s) for reading and building a knowledge base necessary for dealing with content and the structure of the material. Ringler and Weber also note that pre-reading activities elicit prior knowledge, build background, and serve to focus attention. Wallace (1992) argues that in order to interact efficiently with the text, the second language reader needs access to content as well as context. In other words, second language readers will need to draw on appropriate schematic knowledge to reach satisfactory interpretation of the text. He continues that, in the light of schema theory, we might think of reading as a comprehension or understanding process that involves three stages, the first of which is called pre-reading. In fact, schematic knowledge has textual representations which are represented by lexical choices made by the discourse producer in the encoding process. Thus, one of the teacher's duties is to help the reader recognize these lexical choices. Any lexical element in a text is the textual representation of an abstract mental concept. This study argues that background knowledge can be provided as a pre-reading activity prior to reading. It is suggested that prior to reading the instructor can highlight those lexical elements in a text that seem to be in close relationship with the topic of the text and by making them transparent, the relevant schemata can be activated in the reader's mind. Finally, I will deal with the question of pre-reading activities in ESP textbooks written for Iranian students as university books by SAMT, and have a close look at the pre-reading tasks suggested in one of these textbooks.
... In recent years, reading has been considered a multileveled and interactive process, in which readers construct a meaningful representation of text using their background knowledge (Al-Issa, 2006). In their studies, researchers such as Zhao & Zhu (2012), (Al-Issa, 2006), and Ajideh (2006) find that the more unfamiliar the learners are with the topic of the text they are reading, the more difficulties they encounter in their understanding of the text. As a result, they conclude that background knowledge plays a very crucial role in the process of comprehending the text and constructing meaning in L2. ...
... Pre-reading activities are activities that provide learners with "activities that help students with cultural background, stimulate students' interest in the text, and pre-teach vocabulary" (Lazar, 1993, p.83). Meanwhile, Ajideh (2006) thinks that "pre-reading activities provide the reader with necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the materials". ...
... However, in his study, Ajideh (2006) only suggested two types of pre-reading activities: ...
Pre-reading activities play an important role in language reading classrooms since they help to activate students' background knowledge of the topics being taught, which results in improving students' reading comprehension. Most studies in the literature focus on exploring the effects of individual pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, questioning on students' performance in doing comprehension tasks. Few studies have been conducted to explore whether one technique is better than the others in activating students' schemata in reading lessons. The current study investigates the impact of Questioning and Semantic map in Pre-reading stage on EFL gifted high school students' reading comprehension. The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students). They shared the same culture, native language, educational background and age. The data were collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews. The findings revealed that both Questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students' reading comprehension. Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill. The findings shed lights on what can be done to improve EFL students' reading performance.
... Therefore, the relationship between man and his society is a symbiotic one. Furthermore, human beings constantly try to make sense of situations within their surroundings because this gives them a sense of understanding, familiarity and security (Ajideh, 2006). As people have repeated encounters of similar scenarios within their cultural environment, they begin to organize their knowledge from these scenarios into concepts, thereby forming decisional ideas and attitudes about such situations. ...
... This means that, in having a previous cognitive reference and understanding of a situation, one can effectively form words to communicate about such a situation. According to Ajideh (2006), the relationship and functions of the three linguistic levels are explained as follows: "In comprehending a given piece of language, we use what sociologists call interpretative procedures for filling the gaps between our schematic knowledge and the language which is encoded systematically" (p. 4). ...
... This implies that at the mention of a word, one remembers the needed information attached to that word, thus activating the schema for knowledge. In trying to theoretically shed light on how schemata work, Ajideh (2006) provides the following observation: ...
... This fact is a consequence of the lack of background knowledge, which is usually enhanced through pre-reading and post-reading stage. This problem might come from little effort in activating and building students' schemata in these stages, especially in pre-reading stage which is also a key stage to motivate learners to read and learn these difficult ESP reading texts (Ajideh, 2006;Alemi & Ebadi, 2010). In other words, the difficulties of English majors in reading ESP texts might result from the neglect or misuse or disinterest of pre-reading schema-building activities (Pre-SBAs) in teaching ESP reading comprehension of the ESP teachers. ...
... In ESL/EFL reading, to overcome the major problems in comprehension, they need to be well-equipped with the activities of recalling and constructing related schemata before reading. These activities are labeled as pre-reading schema-building activities (Kirn, Hartmann, Carver, & Sullivan, 2003), schema-based pre-reading activities (Ajideh, 2003), schema theory-based pre-reading activities (Ajideh, 2003(Ajideh, , 2006, background knowledge activation (Strangman et al., 2003), prior knowledge activation (Alvermann, Smith, & Readence, 1985;Labiod, 2007), or simply as pre-reading activities (Carrell, 1988;Chen and Graves, 1995;Karakaş, 2005;Pearson-Casanave, 1984;Ringler and Weber, 1984;Stott, 2001;Taglieber et al., 1988). Sometimes, they are also called simply as schemabuilding activities (Bergendorf, 2006;Prince & Mancus, 1987) because the most significant stage amongst three stages (pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading (Alyousef, 2006;Ur, 1996;Williams, 1987)) for activating and building schema is pre-reading stage (Al-Issa, 2006; Carrell, 1988;Johnson, 1982;Hudson, 1982;Rokhsari, 2012;Williams, 1987). ...
This paper aims at accessing the problems and reviewing the relationships and benefits of using schema-building activities in ESP reading classrooms. Based on the theoretical background and previous studies, the study reveals the research gaps and builds the conceptual framework to investigate the extent to which pre-reading schema-building activities (Pre-SBAs) were applied in teaching ESP (English for Specific Purposes) reading comprehension for English majors at Faculty of Foreign Languages-Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (FFL-HCMUTE).
... Furthermore, this strategy plays a significant role in stimulating readers' motivation. That is, when teachers provide students with opportunities to express themselves freely and interact with each other while brainstorming ideas, they increase students' motivation and interest in reading (Ajideh, 2006). ...
... This leads us to conclude that predicting, as a schema activation strategy, is of great importance in the process of comprehending a given piece of writing. It gets the learners think about the ideas that may occur throughout the text before reading it (Ajideh, 2006). By doing so, learners make connection between the new input and their existing knowledge (Gillet & Temple, 1982 as cited in Kelly & Clausen-Grace, 2007). ...
This research aims at investigating the effects of schema activation, using brainstorming and predicting, on students' reading comprehension at the English department, Blida 2 University, Algeria. To this end, an experimental research design was adopted where two data collection instruments were used: a students' questionnaire to elicit students' attitudes towards reading in English, their difficulties in reading comprehension and use of brainstorming and predicting as schema activation strategies, and an experiment in which two experimental groups were taught how to activate their schemata prior to reading through brainstorming and predicting strategies. The results of the study demonstrated that an interactive reading approach based on activating students' schemata through brainstorming and predicting had significant effects on the process of comprehending texts and increased students' motivation to read.
... On the other hand, Ajideh (2006) believes that in most cases, a common problem that students experience in reading classes is the feeling that they know absolutely nothing about the subject they are reading and accordingly, their attempts to answer reading comprehension questions prove largely futile. The truth is that the problem may not be the lack of background knowledge, but rather the failure to activate that knowledge. ...
... 335). Ajideh (2006) proposed that teachers 'can adopt…reading questions from the comprehension questions that appear in the textbook after the reading selection or in the teachers' manual' (pp. 7, 8). ...
Reading comprehension is a key issue in learning English as a foreign language, and it is critical that teachers utilize pre-reading strategies in reading classes in order to help students enhance their comprehension. The present study investigated the effectiveness of two pre-reading strategies of pre-questioning and vocabulary pre-teaching on EFL students’ performance in reading comprehension. A group of 60 students participated in this study. An experimental design was used, with 20 students being assigned to the first experimental group that received one pre-reading strategy (vocabulary pre-teaching), while the second experimental group which also consisted 20 students received another pre-reading strategy (pre-questioning) and the remaining 20 students received the traditional method. Students in the groups were asked first to perform the pre-reading strategy, read a passage, and then answer comprehension questions. Results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the groups. The experimental groups got better results than the control group. Comparison of the two experimental groups, moreover, showed that the vocabulary pre-teaching group outperformed the pre-questioning group. Key words: EFL teaching, Pre-reading strategies, Pre-questioning, Reading comprehension, Schema theory, Vocabulary pre-teaching
... Nation (2001) argues that although vocabulary comprehension is not the equivalent of reading comprehension, reading comprehension is not accessible without vocabulary knowledge. On the other hand, Ajideh (2006) claims that one of the problems most EFL students face is they have no knowledge about the topic of the reading text and accordingly their attempts to answer reading comprehension questions prove largely futile. The fact is that the problem is not the lack of background knowledge, but the problem comes back to activating the background knowledge. ...
... 335). Ajideh (2006) assumed that teachers "can adopt … reading questions from the comprehension questions that there are in the textbook after the reading selection or in the teachers' manual" (pp. 7-8). ...
Considering comprehension is a main skill in English learning. It is critical to use pre-reading methods in reading instruction to assist students increase their comprehension. This study investigated the effectiveness of pre-questioning and vocabulary pre-teaching on EFL pupil reading comprehension ability. Sixty students participated in the study. An experimental plan was utilized. Twenty pupils were elected for the first experimental group that received vocabulary pre-teaching method, the second experimental group, also consisted of 20 students, received pre-questioning strategy and 20 students in control group gave the conventional method. Students in the groups on both pre-test and post-test were asked to consider a reading text, and after that reply reading comprehension queries. Findings revealed that there were statistically significant variation among the groups. The experimental groups outperformed the control group. Moreover, results indicated that the vocabulary pre-teaching one performance was better than the pre-questioning group.
... Nunan (2003) states that all experiences which are accumulated and brought to the reading texts belong to the readers' background knowledge. Prereading activities help the students to relate their background knowledge and the new information which they find in the text (Ajideh, 2006). The teachers have the important roles to provide effective instructions in the pre-reading stage of the reading classroom. ...
... Another pre-reading activity which can be implemented before reading is giving questions related to the text. Ajideh (2006) says, "Some pre-reading activities simply consist of questions to which the reader is required to find answers from the text" (p. 6). Besides providing the prequestions for the students, the teacher can ask them to create their own questions related to the reading text. ...
The students’ perception on the teacher instruction shows whether the teaching techniques meet the students’ need or not. Because of this reason, the researcher wants to find out the varieties of pre-reading activities used by the teacher and the students’ perception on the implementation of the pre-reading activities. There were two problem formulations in this study: 1) What kinds of pre-reading activities that are used by Basic Reading II teacher in the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University? 2) How is the students’ perception on pre-reading activities used by the teacher? This research was a survey research. In gathering the data, there were two instruments used in this research. They were interview and questionnaire. The interview was done by interviewing the teacher of Basic Reading II Class. The interview was used to answer the first research question about the varieties of pre-reading activities in Basic Reading II class. Then, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to 56 students of Basic Reading II class. The questionnaire was used to answer the second research question about the students’ perception on pre-reading activities used by the teacher. The result of this research showed that brainstorming, pre-teaching vocabulary, pre-questioning, visual aids, and KWL strategy were the varieties of pre-reading activities used by the teacher. There were two different implementation of pre-teaching vocabulary. There were also two activities combined together, they were the use of visual aids and KWL strategy. The students had positive perception on the implementation of pre-reading activities in Basic Reading II Class.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2015.180206
... He mainly favored a rhetorical framework, covering discoursal aspects of texts. The framework consisted of certain strategies and techniques for skimming and scanning information based on a procedural reading model and [37] focused on the learner-centered approach. He argued for learner autonomy, goalorientedness, process-orientedness, and metacognition, and touches upon TEFL in Iran to see how much it related to these factors. ...
... However, Iranian students have low proficiency of English language. These perspectives are compatible with surveys conducted by [37] who emphasized on learnercentered approach and [36] who criticized the traditional approach as well as [35] pointed out the weak proficiency of students. ...
... Pre-reading activities are intended to activate appropriate knowledge structures or provide knowledge that the reader lacks. Ajideh (2006) holds that pre-reading activities are beneficial to the reader: by building new schemata, by activating existing schemata, and by informing the teacher what the students know. Colorado (2007) argues that knowing something about the topic is necessary for students before the reading. ...
... Brainstorming has many advantages as a classroom technique. First, it requires little teacher preparation; second, it allows learners considerable freedom to bring their own prior knowledge and opinions to bear on a particular issue; and third, it can involve the whole class (Ajideh, 2006). ...
Most specialists in the field of foreign language reading consider reading as an interactive process between the text and the reader’s prior knowledge. Therefore, the activation of prior background knowledge for an effective comprehension is very important. It is generally agreed that the pre-reading phase is the stage where we can help this interaction and activation take place. There are different strategies and techniques which could be applied to make sure of this interaction and to achieve the final goal of reading, i.e. comprehension. In this study, we focus on the pre-reading phase and the impact of three pre-reading techniques (the brainstorming, the kwl (what I know, want to know, learned), and the pre-questioning techniques) on reading comprehension. 125 high school students, both boys and girls, studying pre-university in Tarom, Zanjan, participated in the study. They were assigned to four groups: one control group and three experimental groups for each of the three pre-reading techniques. The results of data analysis indicated that all the experimental groups that used the pre-reading techniques did significantly better in their comprehension than the control group which received no technique. Meanwhile, the KWL group exceeded the other two groups in their performance.
... There has not been much discussion in the academia about the use of pre-reading activities in the EFL context. Few articles though addressed the benefits of using prereading activities for EFL learners [3,32,41,42]. This could be attributed to the difficulty that educators face when asking students to perform and accomplish tasks of their own in EFL classrooms. ...
... In a university setting where most EFL learners range between absolute beginners and high intermediate with levels in between, maximizing the role of pre-reading activities appear to be one of the best teaching and learning practices to ensure positive and solid engagements with textbook materials [3,13,41]. EFL Saudi learners have difficulties coping with different reading texts particularly those related to materials in Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, etc. Such textbooks are heavily laden with difficult and vague lexical items [23,30]. ...
... As mentioned above, in KWL charts process learners tried to write some questions in the second column to answer after they learned the texts' materials. By considering the importance of using questions before reading different texts the researcher refers to Ajideh suggestion, thus, Ajideh (2006) believed that traditionally some prereading strategies involved questions which the individuals should find answers after reading the text, but in present-day the questions precede the text, in these activities students should find answers previously. In this method, readers read each question before reading the text this method aid learner to predict the rest of the passage. ...
... The possible reason for this may be was teacher's unfamiliarity with new strategy. The result of this study is not in accordance with Ajideh (2006) who believed that pre reading activities assist individuals to be active participants in comprehending. It also is in contrast with O'Brien (2007) who stated that KWL charts had significant effect on improving ELLs' comprehension. ...
This study was designed to examine the effects of using KWL charts strategy on EFL learners’ comprehension of culturally unfamiliar texts. For this purpose, forty two intermediate EFL learners were participated in the present study; all participants were female and native speakers of Persian in Bahar Laguage School in Shiraz. The participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 as the experimental group and Group 2 as the control group. Group 1 learned reading sections through using KWL charts and group 2 learned reading in a traditional way (e.g., through questioning and summarizing, etc.). The participants were given a pretest in order to check their reading comprehension before the treatments. After the pretest, group one learned reading sections in their instructional book (Summit 1 A) through employing KWL charts as a prereading strategy. Moreover, group two did not receive any treatment. Then, the posttest was given to the participants to see whether the application of KWL charts had any effect(s) on EFL learners’ comprehension. The result of study showed that there was no significant improvement on EFL learners’ performances on reading quizzes while using KWL charts and KWL charts did not have any positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ comprehension. The findings of this study can be useful for English teachers, researchers, and learners. The results of this study refer to the importance of reading strategies and their impacts on students’ performances in reading classes. Reading strategies can be considered as a means of helping instruction, enhancing students’ reading skill, and facilitating collaboration and interaction within class through making beneficial class discussion and sharing new information. Nowadays, reading skill is instructed through outdated tactics in Iran. So, the results of this study offer new and novel tactics for improving teaching method in educational settings such as schools and institutes.
... Prereading support is based on stronger theoretical foundations. Ajideh (2006, p. 3) claimed that " students are more likely to experience success with reading if they are familiar with selected vocabulary items before they begin reading " using activities like questioning, creating semantic maps, and studying word definitions. ...
... Schema theory is another rationale for prereading activities. Ajideh (2006), Cook (1989), Liontas (2001), and Romero-Ghiretti et al. (2007) all contended that activation of learners' prior knowledge and schema will facilitate reading. However, it is unclear if vocabulary introduced right before reading can be considered part of the reader's prior knowledge in the sense that term is used by cognitive psychologists. ...
Intermediate learners of Spanish read a Spanish newspaper article with vocabulary assistance either before reading, while reading, both, or without any such assistance. Reading performance was significantly better for students receiving vocabulary assistance during reading, but not for those receiving it before reading. Reading time of the newspaper article was less for students receiving prereading vocabulary assistance, but total lesson time (the prereading time plus reading time) was more for those students. Given the particular activities of this study, a vocabulary activity before reading appears to speed up reading without affecting comprehension, while vocabulary assistance during reading appears to improve comprehension without affecting speed.
... If they have no knowledge about the topic of the reading text, then their attempts at comprehension may prove challenging. However, it is sometimes the case that the lack of background knowledge is not the real issue, but rather it is the lack of activation of background knowledge (Ajideh 2006). Without the appropriate background knowledge or schemata built up, they will not be able to comprehend the material. ...
Academic reading at college and university poses a real challenge for international students with English as a second language. Often the main hurdles are a lack of language proficiency, critical-reading skills, or background knowledge. Also, unfamiliarity with cultural and academic conventions plays a role. Even with intensive English-language training, reading success remains elusive without the support and participation of faculty, especially at the critical prereading stage. This article examines the obstacles that negatively affect student reading and elaborates on the importance of faculty intervention by incorporating effective prereading strategies in their classrooms. Specifically, 3 activity menus are provided that contain a selection of strategies to help with activating prior knowledge, analyzing text features, and developing vocabulary
... According to (Gurning & Siregar, 2017) Reading is one of skills in English to make the people get an information from what they read, and information from a text, it needs a thinking process in order to be able to reach the comprehension. But some of people argue that reading some article or textbook is easy but read with comprehension is more difficult (Ajideh, 2006;Ayu & Indrawati, 2019;Education, 2023;Gilbert & Holmes, 1955). Actually, Reading skill is very important for students such as; the students can get information from they read, the students can add their knowledge, students can enlarge the way of their thinking by reading any text (Okkinga et al., 2018). ...
This research aims to find out students' reading comprehension abilities before and after being taught using the Merdeka Menagajar Platform. This study used a one-group pretest-posttest design. There isn't any control group. Researchers give pre-tests to students, and then researchers give students treatment of reading comprehension using the Merdeka Mengajar Platform. The sample of this research was seventh-grade students of UPTD SMPN 19 Barru, a total of 21 students. The results show that the average pre-test score of seventh-grade students at UPTD SMPN 19 Barru experienced a significant increase in the post-test after being taught using the Merdeka Mengajar Platform on treatment. The average student score in reading comprehension on the pre-test was 55.00 and on the post-test was 84.29. So there is an increase in students' reading comprehension. This study shows the value of the t-test is higher than t-table values (14,496 >2.09302). The results of the t-test calculation of student learning before and after being taught using the Merdeka Mengajar platform are greater than the t-table. Can it be concluded that the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted? Researchers concluded that the use of the Merdeka Mengajar platform is a learning method that can improve reading comprehension ability in learning English.
... The findings of the study display that STEAM pre-reading tasks can contribute to the development of reading comprehension in an EFL reading class. It is known that pre-reading activities decrease the uncertainty the students bring to the task of reading texts (Vacca & Vacca, 1989) and help students bridge their previous knowledge and the new information they find in the text (Ajideh, 2006). In this way, the reading task becomes purposeful and engaging and readers feel more motivated to sustain the reading and comprehend the passage. ...
This paper reports the findings of an experimental study that probed into the impact of integrating STEAM activities into teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading on reading comprehension and its associated cognitive load. The sample included 60 high school students who were split into experimental and control groups, with 30 students in each. Before the study, their reading comprehension was assessed by the reading module of the A2 Key test. The associated cognitive load of A2 Key was assessed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASATLX) before the study as well. For the experimental group,STEAM-based pre-reading activitieswere incorporated into teaching reading while the control group was taught based on the conventional method utilizing the activities of their textbook. The experiment lasted for five months. The reading section of A2 Key and the NASA TLX were used to explore the effect of the intervention on the participants’ reading comprehension and its associated cognitive load after the study. The data were analyzed by t-test and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). According to the findings, STEAM-based warm-up activities significantly impactedthe development of reading comprehension in favor of the experimental group. It was also found that the cognitive load of the experimental group significantly reduced regardingmental demand, physical demand, and frustration in comparison to the control group. The practical implications of the study for education policymakers,curriculum designers, and teachers are understood in terms of integrating STEAM into the EFL curriculum to make students interested in STEAM topics and create a friendly class atmosphere that would lead to developing their reading skills and knowledge acquisition.
... Cultural schema is also known as abstract schema (Nassaji, 2002), or story schema (Mandler, 1984). Still some others classified schema into two types only: formal schema and content schema (Ajdeh, 2006). In this classification, linguistic schema is included in formal schemata, whereas cultural schema is a part of content schemata. ...
This study aims at describing the effect of the third semester students' religious knowledge on their literal and inferential comprehension. This study is experimental since it is experimental in nature. The design used is called post-test only controlled group design. The analysis presented statistically. In conducting the analysis the writer applied statistical technique using t-test because the data were in the form of test scores representing the third semester students' literal and inferential reading comprehension performance. The data representing the third semester students' literal and inferential reading comprehension performance were collected using reading test in multiple choice format. Two texts on the basis of which test items were developed dealt with Christmas Eve and Ramadhan Eid. These two texts were selected for the two celebrations are most popular religious events in Christian and Moslem religious group. The sample of this research were taken from the third semester students of English Education Department FBS UNIMA in the academic year of 2014/2015. The total number of students is 30 consist of 15 students of Christian and 15 of Moslem. The analysis shows that the third semester students' content schemata significantly affect their literal and inferential comprehension of religious-related texts. Other researches concerning the effect of content schemata still need to be conducted in order to get more accurate or valid information
... There is a plethora of research on pre-reading activities and their effects on learners' reading comprehension and vocabulary learning (Hudson, 1982;Tudor, 1990;Taglieber et al, 1988;Ajideh, 2006;Alemi & Ebadi, 2010;Mihara, 2011;Bilokcuoğlu, 2011;Sousa, 2012;Azizifar et al., 2015;Hashemi et al., 2016); Rasouli et, al., 2019). These activities induce learners' background knowledge related to the reading content. ...
This study explores the effect of categorically different pre-reading activities in learners’ L1 on reading comprehension and learning of focus-on-vocabulary. The participants were sixty Turkish EFL learners attending a state high school, and the data was gathered from their achievement test scores. The data were analyzed through one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and t-test statistical procedures were implemented. The findings revealed that the treatment group, who were exposed to pre-reading activities in L1, obtained better results both in reading comprehension and focus-on-vocabulary activities than the control group. The positive effect of implementing the ‘’short-circuit’’ L1 use in pre-reading activities for reading comprehension and focus-on-vocabulary exercises was observed. It was also seen that categorically different pre-reading activities enhanced EFL learners’ reading comprehension and vocabulary learning.
... More suggested activities used in the reading classrooms to build students' prior knowledge are: Brainstorming (giving the class a particular key word or key concept, a newspaper headline or book title),previewing, class discussion about the topic, semantic mapping, advance organizers, anticipation guide, audiovisual aids, linking the topic to students' culture, and Know-Want to Know-Learned (KWL) chart (Ajideh, 2006;;Alhaisoni, 2017;Alshammari, 2017;Labiod, 2007;Rao, 2007;Shen, 2008). Students can also be given topics to search out, i.e. on the web, and then discuss the topics in the class as part of the pre-reading activity. ...
... Schema also gives guidelines to understand how reading comprehension occurs and how inferential reasoning takes place (McCormick, 1992). Moreover, schema theory helps the establishment of mental mappings or schema, which in turn guides the ability to organize information and make inferences (Al-Issa, 2006;Ajideh, 2006;Lerner, 2002). ...
The article presents early indicators of good reading skills for Grade 3 learners. It employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design by which quantitative data collection and analysis occurred first, followed by qualitative data collection and analysis. The intention of using this design was that qualitative data would explain and contextualize the quantitative findings. The quantitative part constitutes a non-equivalent control group design in a quasi-experimental approach. It used naturally occurring intact groups that already existed before and after a quasi-experimental treatment occurred to make comparisons between groups. It involved 1,325 Grade 3 learners selected by convenient sampling technique from 10 primary schools. It used a reading achievement test for quantitative data collection in both groups after and before the intervention. It analyzed quantitative data with the help of a t-test and ANCOVA. Under the qualitative part, a multiple case study design was employed via interviews and observation of learners, teachers, and parents. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The findings indicated that there was an association between reading achievement and learners’ linguistics skills, schema, motivation, and reading self-efficacy. Therefore, teachers are advised to emphasize early indicators of reading skills in order to make Grade 3 learners more beneficiaries.
... Even after ASR systems convert recordings into spoken language documents, reading these documents only partly ameliorates the efficiency issue. It has been observed that NLP technologies on spoken language documents, such as keyphrase extraction and summarization, are crucial for distilling, organizing, and prioritizing information and significantly improves users' efficiency in grasping important information, as shown in prior studies on topic segmentation [1], keyphrase extraction [2] and summarization [3]. Topic segmentation and keyphrase extraction are also useful for downstream information retrieval [4,5,6] and summarization [7]. ...
Listening to long video/audio recordings from video conferencing and online courses for acquiring information is extremely inefficient. Even after ASR systems transcribe recordings into long-form spoken language documents, reading ASR transcripts only partly speeds up seeking information. It has been observed that a range of NLP applications, such as keyphrase extraction, topic segmentation, and summarization, significantly improve users' efficiency in grasping important information. The meeting scenario is among the most valuable scenarios for deploying these spoken language processing (SLP) capabilities. However, the lack of large-scale public meeting datasets annotated for these SLP tasks severely hinders their advancement. To prompt SLP advancement, we establish a large-scale general Meeting Understanding and Generation Benchmark (MUG) to benchmark the performance of a wide range of SLP tasks, including topic segmentation, topic-level and session-level extractive summarization and topic title generation, keyphrase extraction, and action item detection. To facilitate the MUG benchmark, we construct and release a large-scale meeting dataset for comprehensive long-form SLP development, the AliMeeting4MUG Corpus, which consists of 654 recorded Mandarin meeting sessions with diverse topic coverage, with manual annotations for SLP tasks on manual transcripts of meeting recordings. To the best of our knowledge, the AliMeeting4MUG Corpus is so far the largest meeting corpus in scale and facilitates most SLP tasks. In this paper, we provide a detailed introduction of this corpus, SLP tasks and evaluation methods, baseline systems and their performance.
... By asking questions, it can help the writer identify and develop their ideas in writing. Questioning is one type of top-down processing activity (Ajideh, 2006). Besides, questioning is one of the most conventional classroom activities used to scaffold students' learning processes to facilitate explanation construction, planning, monitoring, and evaluating, and making justifications (Ge & Land, 2003). ...
This paper reports a descriptive study to enquire into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) secondary and high school (K-12) students’ perceptions about the advantages and difficulties of written feedback by questioning in writing. This paper draws on the data collected as part of a larger project including questionnaires and focus-group interviews. The findings reveal that students held positive perceptions about the impact of written feedback by questioning in writing, particularly on motivation, writing skills, and attitudes and preferences.
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... The first column represents what the studentknowsabout the topic by recalling what they know; the second represents what the studentwants to know in the text by determining what they want to learn; and the third represents what the student has learned after having read the text by identifying what they learn as they read (Carr & Ogle, 1987). & Pearson (1978) can be presumed as the first major activity that activates students' appropriate schemata of a given topic (Ajideh, 2006). The map is an organized arrangement of vocabulary concepts, which reveals what students already know about the topic. ...
The current study was conducted to investigate high school EFL teachers’ perceptions towards the role of content schema activation that is focused on the pre-reading stage of their students’ reading comprehension ability and to find out the most common instructional strategies EFL teachers use to foster schema activation in the EFL classroom and gain insights into possible difficulties EFL teachers face when activating schemata in the reading lessons. The participants included 77 EFL high school teachers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. To collect the data, a 22-item questionnaire and the semistructured interview on the teachers’ perceptions were carried out. The findings showed that although the participants had a positive perception towards the role of schema activation in English reading comprehension, they confirmed instructional strategies were not often used to activate students’ schemata in English reading comprehension. In addition, the participants tend to use more simple strategies, such as questioning, brainstorming, discussion and using audiovisual aids than complex strategies, Know - Want to know - Learned chart, semantic mapping, and anticipation guide, in order to activate students’ schemata. Most possible difficulties in activating students’ schemata in English reading comprehension were also revealed, such as the students’ limited linguistic knowledge, unfamiliar reading text’s topics, limited time for teaching reading, time-consuming work in designing the effective and appropriate schema activation activities, and the large classes. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are presented based on these findings.
... During the oil crisis in the 1970s, this trend became more intense. Another important moment is that people are increasingly aware that English can be adjusted to meet the needs of students according to different situations [4][5][6]. ...
In the context of big data, it analyzes ESP-based college English teaching. First, it explains the big data theory in ESP, and then discusses the resource discovery service, information storage service, resource organization service, and information retrieval service of English teaching. On the basis of the service content of ESP in college English teaching, it expounds the self-learning mode of college English based on ESP theory from the aspects of one-stop resource service, subject knowledge service, information visualization service and smart service.
... As ICT become prevalent in our society, we just cannot ignore the impact digital texts may have on our teaching and learning foreign languages (Chou, 2016). Consequently, accepted theories on reading, top-down and bottom-up, Gestalt and schemata (Ajideh, 2006;Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983;Goodman, 1988;Shuying, 2013) will inevitably have to be revised in light of technological developments when we take into consideration other modes of text presentation such as graphics, signs, images and integrated auditory clips. Therefore, to know how to read in this modern age implies being able to move from the state of being literate to that of being transliterate. ...
Since the early eighties, numerous experiments have been conducted in order to answer the following question: How does reading on paper differ from reading on screen? Our article presents a brief review of comparative studies in this field of research. We then look at reading models in L1 and L2, and posit that digitally displayed language actually provides a rich source of comprehensible input, and that foreign language readers can benefit from digital presentation of texts, in particular by way of eBook readers. We also highlight the inevitable and profound impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on the reading brain and, as digital literacy is fast becoming the norm in today’s modern society, we draw attention to the pedagogical implication for foreign language teaching and learning.
... It reveals how translation performance, reading comprehension, and content schema tie together inseparably; therefore, translator trainers and trainees in addition to textbook writers and curriculum designers should pay more attention to the close connection between these variables. This close connection was also highlighted by other researchers (Ajideh, 2006;Kim, 2006;Shakir, 1995 However, lack of content schema would not be the only reason concerning learners" reading problems; inactivated appropriate schemata can be another major cause (Carrell &Eisterhold, 1983).It means that students" schemata may not be activated while they are reading a text. In this regard, pre-reading activities may be employed in order to build a new schema or to activate the already-existing schema. ...
Schemata refer to all kinds of knowledge which are gained throughout the lifetime. Few studies have attempted to integrate schema theory with vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, which are two other crucial factors in translation and learning. Thus, the present research aimed at delineating the potential effect of these three factors on translation performance of Iranian undergraduate students majoring in translator training. To this end, 172 Iranian undergraduate students majoring in translator training were selected based on two-step cluster sampling. To collect data, the participants answered a set of 6 open-ended questions to measure the students" content schema along with a vocabulary size test, reading comprehension test, and translation task. To analyze data, Pearson correlation coefficient as well as stepwise multiple regressions were conducted through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17. Data analysis indicated that the independent variables significantly correlated with translation performance. In addition, multiple regressions analysis specified reading comprehension as the main contributing variable and content schema as the second in students" translation performance. It also showed that vocabulary knowledge could not be a predicting factor in translation performance of the learners; the reason may be related to the crucial role of the dictionary in the translation task. The results highlighted the role of content schema in translation performance of the learners.
... Pre-reading activities let students think about what they already know about a given topic and predict what they will read or hear (Brassell & Rasinski, 2008). According to Ajideh (2006), some pre-reading activities merely contain questions to which the reader should find answers from the text. Other pre-reading tasks focus solely on preparing the reader for likely linguistic difficulties in a text and, more recently, attention has shifted to cultural or conceptual difficulties. ...
... 335). Ajideh (2006) proposed that teachers "can adopt … reading questions from the comprehension questions that appear in the textbook after the reading selection or in the teachers' manual" (pp. 7-8). ...
This study focuses on two pre-reading strategies: vocabulary pre-teaching and comprehension question presentation. Researchers have claimed that a vocabulary strategy is less effective than any other pre-reading strategy. This study investigates whether their claim is true of Japanese university students. The purpose of the study is twofold. The first goal is to examine the effects of the two pre-reading strategies; the second is to discuss the relationships between students’ English proficiency and their reading comprehension. The participants in the present study were asked to perform a pre-reading strategy, read a passage, and then answer comprehension questions. They read four passages altogether. Three weeks after they read the fourth passage, they were asked to answer a questionnaire. This study indicates that vocabulary pre-teaching is less effective for Japanese students, although students with higher English proficiency outperformed lowerlevel students regardless of which pre-reading strategy they used.
... Reading is a voluntary, active and interactive process that occurs before, during and after a certain person reads a written text. Ajideh (2006) claimed that "students are more likely to experience success with reading if they are familiar with selected vocabulary items before they begin reading" using activities like questioning, creating semantic maps, and studying word definitions. ...
The present study is an attempt to investigate the impact of two different types of pre-reading activities
of 1: glossary of unknown vocabulary items and 2:content related support on EFL learners’
performance on reading comprehension across low proficiency (LP) and high proficiency (HP) levels.
80 language learners with an age range of 18-28(male and female) participated in this study. Each
level consisted of two experimental groups. One experimental group received glossary of unknown
vocabulary items while the other group received content related support (in written form) with the aim
of activating prior knowledge before administering reading comprehension questions. The results of the
statistical analysis of the data revealed that two types of pre-reading activity and proficiency level shad
positive effect on the learners’ reading comprehension. The study suggests that appropriate and
relevant pre-task activities should be employed at different proficiency levels to facilitate and improve
the learners’ reading comprehension.
... Ringler and Weber (1984) believe that pre-reading activities elicit prior knowledge, provide background and focus attention. Ajideh (2006) maintains that pre-reading activities can be helpful in three ways: by building new schemata, activating existing schemata, and informing the teacher what the students know. Pre-reading activities are an excellent way for students to draw on their current knowledge and develop schemata prior to reading a given text. ...
Reading comprehension is attained through successful interaction between the reader and the text. This interaction is the major factor that plays the most important role in comprehension. Accordingly, background knowledge will be of primary importance for EFL readers. So schema-based, pre-reading activities should be used for activating such background knowledge. It is assumed that prior knowledge activation requires pre-reading activities. The present study, aims at investigating the role of activating background knowledge in reading comprehension through text previewing. In this study a previewing strategy called THIEVES is used to verify this hypothesis. The researchers hypothesize that if students preview a text before reading it, they are likely to understand its content better. In order to investigate this, we conducted an experimental study using a t-test as a statistical measure of the data. We arrived at the conclusion that previewing a text through THIEVES as a prior knowledge activator-facilitates better comprehension. We found a positive correlation between previewing a text through THIEVES as a pre-reading activity (that aims to activate prior knowledge) and better reading comprehension.
In the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic, and in response to an appeal from the Libyan Ministry of Education to all universities and colleges to improvethe quality of education as the country is in lockdown, there are new ongoingdiscussions on how best to integrate technology for online-learning and teaching. How best to address the academic rigor of the new situation in Libyan EFL university classrooms during this period of unexpected and unprecedented educational disruption, and to engage students in meaningful use of technology for learning is a topic of great interest to practitioners and researchers alike. Byencouraging online or blended learning, language institutions are making greatefforts to further promote the foreign language learning process. Integratingtechnology into the EFL curriculum is not a single concept which is generated from a single theory, and its implementation calls for a range of perspectives and theoretical views. This paper discusses the issue of technology’s contribution in EFL classroom, more specifically it investigates the teaching of literary fiction and how best to support its reading and understanding through technology. The question raised in this paper is how technology facilitates the attainment of coursegoals. So, it tries to propose answers to the questions: How can we best make use of technology for planning literary lessons? What instructional strategies can teachers use to promote reading development? How do teachers help their students acquire the necessary skills for literary analysis and understanding in an online environment? The aim of this research paper is therefore to provide suggestions which Libyan EFL classrooms could make use of in the current situation, to promote technology use and online learning when teaching literature, and also make use of this technology to promote understanding, and analysis of literary texts (fiction) in order to develop creativity, collaboration, and eventually language skills. It, therefore, proposes the utilization of digital storytelling tools like ‘StoryboardThat’ as an instructional approach to facilitate art-based language standards
p>This study aimed at investigating pre-reading teaching strategies employed in Ethiopian secondary EFL textbooks. The researcher carried out the study based on a descriptive-evaluative research design in the realm of sociocultural perspective of teaching reading in EFL settings. Grades eleven and twelve EFL textbooks were subjects of the study. For this purpose, he documented the softcopy pre-reading instructional tasks of the textbooks in a separate word file. Researcher's self-made checklist about pre-reading teaching strategies adapted from a variety of relevant theoretical and research-based evidence was the data collection instrument. The researcher used content analysis method to analyze the instructional activities. Then, he discussed the results of the data with the participant PhD TEFL instructor and reached an agreement that they analyzed the data consistently. The findings of the study indicate that the textbooks do not use different pre-questioning strategies. For instance, they ask pre-questions to obtain general comprehension abilities, but not to confirm expectations, to extract specific information, and to gain detailed or critical reading facilities. Additionally, they disregard pre-teaching vocabulary and pre-teaching metacognitive reading tasks. Contingent upon the findings, the researcher suggests that secondary EFL textbooks should give due emphasis to different pre-reading teaching strategies necessary to develop students’ reading comprehension facilities.</p
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of mind mapping and pre-questioning on the students’ reading comprehension and on the students’ reading comprehension levels: literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation. This study was a quasi-experimental design, which involved 30 Diploma Nursing Student Stikes RS Baptis Kediri. Mind mapping was used for the experimental group and pre- questioning was for the control group. The instrument was 25 item reading comprehension test incorporating the four reading comprehension levels based on Barrett taxonomy. Independent Sample t-test and Manova test were used to analyze the data, which results revealed that there was no significant difference between the students who received mind mapping and those who received pre-questioning in their overall reading comprehension and in their literal comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation level. However, there was a significant difference between the students who received mind mapping and those who received pre-questioning in their inferential comprehension
This study is aimed at investigating the impact of task-based learning approach on developed reading comprehension of the EFL learners. To this end, the scores of reading comprehension tests in a group of students experiencing task-oriented method were compared with those of another group taught the common reading and translation method. The participants include 26 master's degree candidates of educational technology at Allameh Tabataba'i University in the academic year 2012-2013. Due to the fact that the classes were held on a gender basis, which was in compliance with the educational plan of the faculty, the researcher randomly selected the subjects from among the female master's degree candidates of educational technology and divided them into two 13-member groups, namely experimental and control. The experimental group completed the educational text based on the task-oriented lesson plan, and the control group was taught the content with the common method. The measurement tool includes pre-test and post-test on English language reading comprehension at the higher education level. The tests were reliable by 0.63 and 0.72 respectively, which was higher than the criterion, i.e. 0.60. The data analysis method is quantitative, including mean, standard deviation, lowest and highest numbers of the experimental and control groups. The significance test suggested the difference between means of the two groups by means of different t. Results of the data analysis indicates that the language scores in the experimental group, taught using the task-oriented method, were higher in comparison to those of the control group, taught using the common reading and translation method; therefore, the task-oriented method in teaching the English language develops reading comprehension skill of the learners.
Keywords: Learning, Task, Reading Comprehension, English Language
p> The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-questioning and students perception on teaching media towards students’ reading comprehension in private vocational high school Tangerang . The students were in the relevant grade ( second grade ) during a period of three months in which this study was conducted. The writer used survey method in this study. Data collection were conducted by taking the test and distributing questionnaires. The data were processed and analyzed by using statistic descriptive, normality test, linearity test, Multicorrineality test, and hypotheses test. Statistic test uses t test and F test. The research shows that there is an effect of students pre-questioning and students perception on teaching media altogether towards reading comprehension with the regression analisis: = 34,89 + 0,408 X 1 – 0.056 X2. Whenever there is a rise in the value of pre-questioning, there will be a rise in the level of students’ reading comprehension of 0,408 and whenever there is an increase in the value of students perception on teaching media, there will be a decrease in students’ reading comprehension for 0,056. </p
English reading educators in English Foreign Language classroom in Indonesian are often mystified how to teach well reading comprehension to their students. This paper will propose about pedagogy of teaching reading comprehension in EFL classroom relating to the activities in reading instruction, comprehension skills focusing on primary and intermediate level ,and strategies in teaching reading comprehension in order to become their students as effective readers and to improve their students’ reading comprehension suitable with students’ English reading proficiency.Key words: reading comprehension, activities in reading, primary, intermediate level, strategies.
Of significant challenges encountered in the field of Foreign Language Acquisition (FLA) is finding efficient procedures to make learning more promising, and at the same time-independent. Along with these attempts, the present study tries to make a shift in the usage of the cloze procedure traditionally used for testing reading comprehension. Our aim was to find out whether using a cloze procedure prior to teaching reading comprehension skills prompts EFL students Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in learning reading comprehension skills across proficiency levels. To that end, applying quasi-experimental design, 380 B.S. students majoring in engineering were selected based on intact classes and randomly divided into control and experimental groups while their proficiency levels determined through their scores on the Cambridge Quick Placement Test. Then, the participants in the experimental group (N=190) received the prepared cloze procedure, whereas those in the control group received the same procedure for teaching reading skills except the cloze before instruction. Both groups received pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-tests. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS using independent samples t-test to understand the differences between the groups. The results from the tests revealed that using instructional cloze procedure before teaching reading skills has significant effects on participants’ ZPD in all proficiency levels and can broaden their learning. The finding of the present study implies that instead of adhering to the traditional teaching principles and instruments, instructors can use innovative procedures and manipulate traditional methods and tools to facilitate and lengthen learning processes.
Abstract
The study is an attempt to design an ESP syllabus for Iraqi Students at Colleges of Physical Education. The existing English course in these Colleges adopt the old and traditional method in teaching English which mainly focuses on structure and discrete points of the English language while the proposed syllabus is designed according to the students’ needs and interests. The proposed syllabus is supposed to give the students opportunities to practice English language as possible, teach English skills interactively, encourage the students to express their own opinions and decisions, use more activities, participate in group discussion, role play, and increase their autonomy in adding and selecting materials of their own.
The study aims at:
1- evaluating the existing English course entitled "A Course in English for Students in the Colleges of Physical Education, 1987" through a questionnaire distributed to both instructors and students at these colleges.
2- designing an ESP syllabus for 1st year Iraqi students at the Colleges of Physical Education,
3- applying the proposed syllabus to a sample of ESP Iraqi students at the Colleges of Physical Education, and
4- evaluating the proposed syllabus according to the students’ achievement, attitude, and ELT specialists’ points of view.
It is hypothesized that:
1- There are no statistically significant differences between ESP college students’ achievement in the written test of the experimental group which is taught English by the proposed syllabus and the control group which is taught English according to the existing course.
2- There are no statistically significant differences between ESP college students’ achievement in the oral test of the experimental group which is taught English by the proposed syllabus and the control group which is taught English according to the existing course.
3-There are no statistically significant differences between ESP college students’ achievement in the total achievement of the experimental group which is taught English by the proposed syllabus and the control group which is taught English according to the existing course.
The sample of the present study is the first year students at the College of Physical Education for Women, University of Baghdad for the academic year 2007-2008.
To fulfill the aims of this study many procedures are adopted. First, an open-ended questionnaire is given to instructors as well as students at colleges of Physical Education to evaluate the existing course for teaching English for special purpose. Second, subjective need analysis has been conducted to collect the information of students’ needs according to Nunan’s model (1985) and objective needs analysis according to Nunan & Burton’s model (1985). The syllabus has been designed according to the learner-centered approach and multi-syllabus design. Third, an experiment is designed where two groups of (64) students were randomly chosen from the First Year students at the College of Physical Education for Women. One of these two groups was assigned as a control group, and the other as an experimental one. Both groups were equalized in terms of age; parents’ level of education; the level of subjects’ achievement in English for the previous academic year (2006-2007); and the previous academic type of study in the secondary school, as well as on the pre-test.
The researcher herself taught both groups, as being one of the instructors at the college of Physical Education for Women. The experimental group was taught according to the proposed syllabus and by using the communicative language teaching method while the control one was taught according to the existing English course and by using the grammar-translation and structural methods. The experiment lasted one academic year (two courses). At the end of the study, oral and written post-tests were constructed for both groups. After, exposing the two tests to jury members for the purpose of ascertaining their validity, item analysis was carried out to determine the item difficulty level and discriminating power. Reliability of the written test was estimated by using split-half procedure, where as the oral test is estimated by mark/remark procedure.
After analyzing the results statistically, it has been found out that there are significant differences between the two groups in the written and oral tests and in favour of the experimental group. This indicates that using the proposed syllabus in teaching is more effective than using the existing course.
Finally, Iraqi Colleges of Physical Education are recommended to use the proposed syllabus in teaching English for specific purposes instead of the existing course. Also, the designers are recommended to pay more attention to students’ needs as a source in designing their future syllabus.
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of mind mapping and pre-questioning on the students’ reading comprehension and on the students’ reading comprehension levels: literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation. This study was a quasi-experimental design, which involved 52 senior high school students of the eleventh grade in Surabaya. Mind mapping was used for the experimental group and pre-questioning was for the control group. The instrument was 25 item reading comprehension test incorporating the four reading comprehension levels based on Barrett taxonomy. Independent Sample t-test and Manova test were used to analyze the data, which results revealed that there was no significant difference between the students who received mind mapping and those who received pre-questioning in their overall reading comprehension and in their literal comprehension, evaluation, and appreciation level. However, there was a significant difference between the students who received mind mapping and those who received pre-questioning in their inferential comprehension. Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v2i2.3090
Although wealth of empirical researches have covered the impact of crucial, indispensable role reading skills play in the development of individuals' mental faculties through the acquisition of knowledge in a particular language, scientific works on the assessment of the relationship(s) between pre-reading activities (consisting of games, puzzle solving, match making) and reading skills achievement remain depressingly scanty in Ghana. This study in the light of foregoing atmosphere explored how pre-reading activities facilitate pre-reading and reading skills among preschoolers with the use of randomized experimental control groups design which adopted pre and post-test of two classes, as well as observation guides to diagnose the problem of reading among the KG children in the two groups (control and treatment groups). The findings from these experimentations clearly portrayed the significant influence that pre-reading activities exert on the level of preschoolers reading skills achievements. Upon thorough analysis, and discussions predicated on the research outcome, it has been recommended that preschool educators incorporate level-appropriate pre-reading activities to enrich Preschool Education in Ghana.
The present study aimed at investigating the immediate and delayed effects of a multiplestrategy
instruction on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' reading performance.
The sample of the study consisted of 99, 11e12 year old, Greek-speaking EFL learners. The
study, quasi experimental in design, involved an experimental group that received a threemonth
strategy instruction set within the Direct Explanation framework and a control
group that received no such training but participated in the pretest, immediate and
delayed posttest measurements. The results of the study indicated that the students in the
experimental group improved their reading performance both in the immediate and
delayed posttest measurements as compared to the students in the control group.
Empirical evidence is provided regarding the effectiveness of explicit multiple-strategy
training in EFL contexts with young, school-aged students. Educational implications and
recommendations for further research are also discussed.
(The full text can be reached at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X15001724)
A successful educational system evaluates existing programs with regard to objectives, instructional procedures, achievements and tries to revise them and develop innovative ones. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been planned as a compulsory course for students of all fields of study (except English) in Iranian universities. This survey was conducted to investigate an ESP course in the field of computer engineering in the current situation of Iranian universities by examining instructors’ attitudes. The participants were 30 university instructors from thirteen universities of Iran. To collect the data, a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of both quantitative and qualitative items was used as well as one-sample t-test was employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that ESP instructors’ attitudes toward their ESP course were below the expected value. The findings revealed that the current situation of ESP courses in Iran was actually problematic and needed to be rectified. The findings of this study were supported by the research conducted by Mirza Suzani, Yarmohammadi and Yamini, (2011). Different groups could use the findings of this study including course developers, program organizers, policymakers, students and instructors.
A dire need for quality Maritime English (ME) training is internationally recognized. Having good command of the English language, the lingua franca for seafarers, is now a top priority for anyone who wishes to join a well-reputed shipping company or be promoted to a higher level within a maritime business. Consequently, maritime educational institutions worldwide continuously review their ME training programmes and place great demands on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) serving institutions / practitioners to design courses and develop materials that address the specific needs of maritime education.
The current paper presents an institutional experience in course design and material development at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology & Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Egypt. In accordance with the demand by the AASTMT College for Maritime Transport and Technology for reviewing the ME programme at the Nautical Department, the AASTMT Institute for Language Studies (ILS) launched a two-year project in summer 2006 with the aim of designing an up-to-date ME programme that meets the College demand for change and achieve international standards for quality ME training.
The paper first shows how the ILS ESP team identified the objective and subjective needs for the a new ME course book. This is followed by a description of course design, which includes an overview of the specification of course aims, the selection of content and the adoption of relevant teaching/linguistic methodological principles. Finally, the stage of material development and implementation is briefly discussed.
Reading comprehension is one of the main purposes of ESL teaching/learning. In brief there are two main outlooks on reading. The first, a product oriented approach to reading, assumes meaning exists in the text itself, and it is text-based factors that determine meaning. In this view pre-reading activities rely mostly on clarifying the meaning of difficult words or complex structures. Whereas, for the second, process- oriented approach to reading, meaning is obtained through a successful interaction between the reader and the text, and it is inside-the-head factors th at play an important role in comprehension. Accordingly, background knowledge will be of primary importance for ESL readers, and schema-based pre- reading activities should be used for activating and constructing such background knowledge. In this study, as an ESL reading instructor I worked with a group of intermediate -level students for one academic term, with a special focus on schema-theory -based pre-reading activities. At the end of the term, in a retrospective study the students' impressions and thoughts of the strategies covered during the term were taken into consideration.