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Video and audio platforms for improving listening skills in Spanish´s students of EFL: A preliminary and descriptive study
Abstract
Learning English as a foreign language can be challenging because it requires the development of tools which allows an effective communication process. In this sense, the phonetic differences between Spanish and English are one of the reasons why it is difficult to develop listening skills for Spanish native speakers. Thus, in this research, a didactic strategy based on common audio and video platforms was designed in order to improve this ability in a sample of students. The sample was selected at convenience and consisted of fifteen students from an English intermediate course. The strategy was divided into three parts: a diagnostic test to demonstrate the level of listening; learning activities; and an exit test. A descriptive study was conducted. The obtained results showed students’ progressive improvement in pragmatics, understanding, and intonation. In addition, the results indicated that the use of alternative methods, mediated by new technologies, seems to be equal or more effective than traditional teaching and a better learning of English is perceived by using remote strategies than in face-to-face ones.
... Qualitative scholars strive to understand the meaning that people ascribe to their world and the experiences they have in it. Creswell (2008) states that one-on-one interviews are a data collection method where the researcher asks questions and records responses of one participant at a time. The study is also qualitative and the population constitutes all principals of Govt. ...
... They were asked about their experiences with semi-structured questions. Creswell (2008) states that semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted for this research project. The data analysis consolidates and interprets collected data concurrently with collection. ...
... It allows scholars to study emerging concepts, themes and categories against successive data (Merriam, 2009). The process of qualitative data analysis is inductive, as detailed data is used to create general codes and themes, as supported by Creswell (2008). Patil (2008) suggested that using member check-in interviews is important to avoid misinterpreting participant responses and recognizing researcher bias. ...
The study was conducted to examine the role of environment & instructional strategies in enhancing the English language skills i.e., reading, listening, writing and speaking skills among students in higher secondary schools in the Southern Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The population of this qualitative study constitutes both male and female principals of public sector higher secondary schools. A total of 32 principals, consisting of two males and two females from each district, were selected through convenient sampling technique for in-depth interviews. A semi-structured interview was conducted to explore effect of environment and instructional strategies that influence English language skills. The study reveals that environment is loud and overcrowded and outdated teaching methods are used in public sector schools. Study concludes that a supportive environment and relevant instructional strategies are vital to enhancing students' language skills. The study stresses the need to foster a culture of ongoing improvement in English books, ensuring sustained continuous professional development of teachers' English language education. Interview results were abridged as narrative summary.
In this advanced information and communication era, technology can influence the educational practices of teachers and students. Watching Animation Video is one of the ways to develop listening skill and in this case, it refers to students’ perception of Animation Video as media for learning listening at SMK Al-Hikmah Jepara to gives them the authority to their listening skill. The objective of this research is aimed to know the students’ perception of Animation Video as media for learning listening at SMK Al-Hikmah Jepara. This kind of research is qualitative with a descriptive qualitative design. The participants of this research are 25 tenth grade students of AKL 1 at SMK Al-Hikmah Jepara. The instruments used in this study were questionnaires and interviews. The result of this study shows that the perception of the tenth grade AKL 1 students of SMK Al-Hikmah Jepara toward using Animation Video as media for learning listening, it can be concluded that most of the students agree to use Animation Video as media for learning listening. It means that the use of Animation Video as media for learning listening gives a potentially positive contribution to developing listening skills. Most students are enjoy and interested in using Animation Video as media for learning listening. Not only that the use of Animation Videos does not make students bored, but students become more active so they are more interested and of course, Animation Videos also help students in increasing vocabulary and developing listening skills. Therefore, hopefully, this research will help students improve their listening skills, especially through the use of Animation Video as listening learning media. Besides that, the researcher also suggests teachers be able to use Animation Videos as media for learning listening in class. Then the researcher suggests for the next researcher, in order to be able can explore more information about the students' perceptions of using Animation Video as media for learning listening in different methods.
Language learning nowadays depends on the advancement of facilities and technology. Using appropriate learning media is essential to engage students in the learning process. Therefore, using English movies to improve students’ listening is not new. Previous studies about listening and using movies discussed the related impact of both topics. However, there has not been a study that focused on students’ listening difficulties, students’ experience of watching English movies, and the impacts of using English movies on students’ listening skills. This article analyzes those main topics to find the implications of using English movies for language learning improvement. This study utilizes qualitative methods with coding thematic analysis techniques to explain the interview results. The main result of the study is that students find problems during listening activities, but they can overcome those problems with several strategies. Moreover, using English movies for language learning is effective, especially for improving listening. Finally, this study was conducted to give insights about the positive impacts of using English movies for listening activities.
Listening is often a challenge for foreign/second language learners. Unlike other language skills, listening requires immediate understanding and processing (Vandergrift, 2004) and background knowledge of the target language culture (Vandergrift, 2007; Walker, 2014). Krashen (1985) argued that language can be acquired with comprehensible input; therefore, studies have focused on developing listening skills through both intensive and extensive listening (e.g., Chang & Read, 2006; Jones, 2008; Renandya, 2011). This paper has taken a different approach in that developing listening skills might happen through interaction where learners discuss and negotiate, and not solely through intensive input (Ellis, 1997). Accordingly, the current study examines whether active learning group discussion activities help develop lower-level students' listening comprehension skills. The study creates and implements fifteen active learning group discussion activities based on insights from Elmetaher's (2021) Active Learning Checklist for a full academic term with a group of 25 L1 Japanese students enrolled in a compulsory academic listening course in a Japanese southern university. Pre- and post-listening tests were developed, administered, and showed a significant increase of the listening scores in this group . A discussion on the effectiveness of 'group discussion' in developing listening skills with a newly introduced Four Questions (4Q) teaching strategy has been included.
Speech has often been the main problem when students learn a second language. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to analyze how to improve interactive communication and pronunciation by using the Flipgrid platform with A1 level students at the Salesian Polytechnic University. For this purpose, a Diagnostic Test, a Cambridge Speaking test and a guided response survey were applied. The research collected data to assess the effect of the Flipgrid platform on students' speaking skills and to learn about students' perceptions towards the Flipgrid platform. The results provided information on students' failures in speaking, the benefits of the Flipgrid platform, and a proposal with recommendations for using this platform with A1-level university students.
Teaching a new language is always a challenge for teachers. Particularly, the English required in educational institutions presents a series of regulations that require special attention by specialized teachers to motivate students in their learning process. Within this framework, pedagogy offers a series of strategies that can be applied in a practical way that allow students to be encouraged to feel seduced by this discipline. Some of these strategies are those addressed in this research work, especially music. These strategies, which are very useful, foster essential English skills such as speaking and listening; The objective of this work was to identify the influence of music in English language learning. This research is exploratory, a survey was applied to the students of the Sara Belén Guerrero Vargas Educational Unit of Bahía de Caráquez, Manabí, Ecuador. The study shows that teachers make use of music in their classes and contribute to the learning of the English language especially in the skills for Listening and Speaking.
Listening, as an overlooked aspect of a foreign language acquisition, was regarded as a passive procedure to be acquired by itself, during the early days of second language teaching. As the days of second language teaching were going by, the listening difficulties and problems ensued to get in the way of second language acquisition/learning. The automatic acquisition of listening comprehension seemed to be a failed assumption. The theorists and researchers in the field, consequently, came up with the idea of developing rigorous theories to initially redefine the listening process and furthermore set clear-cut and definite standards to help the learners improve their comprehension in a specific listening context. Looking at the listening comprehension with a new viewpoint, at a specific time in the history of second language acquisition, was not at a distance from the common views over learning and teaching at that time. Therefore, the prevailing views in a specific era exerted a powerful influence over the views on teaching listening comprehension skills. The theoretical definitions of listening comprehension along with a brief history of L2 listening comprehension from the very early days of second language teaching to the present time have been discussed in the subsequent sections.
While video streaming services have had a profound impact on how people view television programs and movies, very little is known about their use to promote second language (L2) development. To address this gap in L2 research, this paper details the results of an exploratory study that examined the combination of interactive video, a new form of entertainment that prompts viewers to make choices that affect the story, and Netflix to see if these tools could enhance different aspects of L2 aural development. Fourteen Japanese university EFL students participated in the study, which utilized a counterbalanced, pretest- posttest research design. The participants viewed two interactive episodes of a TV series via Netflix, each under one of the following conditions: non-interactive and interactive. Pre- and post-tests were administered to measure any gains that were made in aural vocabulary at two different levels (form recognition and meaning recall). Findings from the experiment indicated that interactive video did not significantly impact the incidental learning of aural vocabulary in terms of form recognition or meaning recall. While these results cast doubt on the possible benefits of interactive video, more studies are needed to investigate the potential of the technology for L2 learning.
In the article, improving foreign language pronunciation relating to native language is discussed based on Lingua-didactics. Lingua-didactics is a comprehensive topic studied by many linguists. Based on their scientific and practical considerations, they have given different definitions, taking into account the similarities and differences between the linguistics of other disciplines.
The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions of the effects of using Flipgrid (FG) on their learning experiences and their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of its use in the Arabic as a foreign/world language (AWL) classroom. Thirty students participated in this study and completed a survey composed of an 18-item, 5-point Likert-type questionnaire and open-ended questions. Results indicated that even though students were skeptical about using FG in the beginning, they developed positive attitudes towards its use by the end of the semester. FG provided students with a safe, low-stress platform for language practice while allowing them to track their progress, which in turn helped learners gain more confidence in their listening and speaking skills. Students enjoyed using FG and perceived it as having a positive influence on their language learning as well as on their social and cognitive engagement in the classroom. The main disadvantage listed by 27% of the participants was the lack of immediate feedback on their recorded Flipgrid.
Music education is an important factor of students’ development. The positive effect of music training is evident in all areas, from the intellectual, psychomotor to social and emotional ones, and therefore music classes in the music school should focus both on music making and on experience, understanding and evaluating music, as well as on expressing one’s own ideas, feelings and thoughts. In ear training classes it can be achieved through the area of music listening. Didactical initiatives of the 19th and 20th century contributed to the recognition of the advantages of the auditory approach, while technological innovations allowed the practical application of music listening. Although there are examples that point to fostering the emotional experience in music classes, music listening is still focused on giving assignments of cognitive type and learning about music components. Some exceptions pertain to the application of multimodality in music teaching using both musical and extra-musical areas. The paper is aimed at pointing to the value of the cognitive-emotional music listening and to the possibilities it opens in ear training classes. The cognitive-emotional music listening focuses on experiencing, understanding and appreciation of classical music aimed at shaping students’ worldview and improving their music competences. It can be achieved by the multimodal and interdisciplinary approach to a musical piece. Students learn about the musical-historical context of the emergence of a piece in a given time and circumstances, about the composing approach and the theoretical and harmony features of the work, they develop their musical and critical thinking, make music, and evaluate both music and their own achievements. Repeated listening to a musical piece or excerpts from it, observing and familiarizing with the piece from different perspectives and discussion about the piece and experience after listening make it possible to better understand the piece and its specifics, as well as to discover and improve one’s own self and accept others and the different.
The present study looked at student evaluations of Flipgrid, a video sharing platform. A total of 100 students gave their consent to take part in the study. Students were asked to make a video between 60 and 90 seconds on various subjects, and then evaluate Flipgrid using an online survey. Student evaluations were coded, and interpreted in relation to the sub-constructs of transactional distance outlined by Zhang (2003). Results of the qualitative survey indicate – among others - positive feedback for mediation of social features (54.9%) and platform features (27.5%), but negative feedback for technical problems (39.2%) and feelings of embarrassment (30.3%).
Self-efficacy plays an important role in language learners’ performances in language learning. Studies report that explicit teaching of strategies, self-efficacy, and better learner performance are interdependent concepts. This entails the fact that language teachers should focus on the first two in order to increase the learners’ performance. The aim of this study is to find out how teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies affect EFL learners’ performances and self-efficacy beliefs in listening comprehension tasks. Ninety students participated in this study, thirty of whom were part of the control group. Their listening self-efficacy and listening proficiency were measured before and after a four-week training. During the intervention sessions, instructors taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies in an explicit way, which included teacher modeling and teacher feedbacks. The results revealed that learners’ listening proficiency scores increased while their self-efficacy scores did not change significantly after the training. These findings led to the conclusion that low self-efficacy does not necessarily lead to low listening proficiency. Another finding was that teaching only cognitive and metacognitive strategies does not help learners with their self-efficacy in a short time period. Implications and suggestions for L2 listening are provided considering the results of the study.
Listening skill is one of the four major skills of language that most language learners desire to get mastery in order to communicate effectively in different contexts. It is one of the most challenging skills for many students. The main aim of this study, therefore, was to explore English language students’ listening comprehension difficulties. I employed a survey research design as a research method. Randomly selected sixty male and sixty female students studying English at three community schools of Rupandehi district, Nepal took part in this study as research respondents. They all were from secondary level. A closed ended questionnaire with 24 items on students' listening problem was administered to elicit the data from the respondents. The results of questionnaire indicated that content of the listening text (e.g., unfamiliar words, idiom, feeling fatigue while listening to the long text) was the major source of listening difficulties for the students. The second source of difficulty was related to the listener that included lack of concentration with long listening text and existence of noise in the place. The third difficulty included linguistic features such as complex grammatical structures, pronunciation and problems in distinguishing the word boundaries. And the last source of listening problem was concerned with speaker’s speed of speech and different accents. The findings also raise awareness of both teachers and students regarding the listening comprehension problems.
This study investigated the contribution of second-language (L2) phonetic categorization abilities and vocabulary size to the phonolexical encoding of challenging non-native phonological contrasts into the L2 lexicon. Two groups of German learners of English differing in L2 proficiency (advanced vs. intermediate) participated in an English lexical decision task including words and nonwords with /ε/ and /æ/ (/æ/ does not exist in German), an /ε/-/æ/ phonetic categorization task and an English vocabulary test. Results showed that the effects of phonetic categorization and vocabulary size on lexical decision performance were modulated by proficiency: categorization predicted /ε/-/æ/ nonword rejection accuracy for intermediate learners, whereas vocabulary did so for advanced learners. This suggests that sufficient phonetic identification ability is key for an accurate phonological representation of difficult L2 phones, but, for learners for whom robust phonetic identification is already in place, their ultimate success is tightly linked to their vocabulary size in the L2.
This article is devoted to the role of listening skill and it’s different types in terms of obtaining new language. The stages which are typically used in order to do listening are given with their instructions in the article.
Listening comprehension becomes one of the most difficult skills for most of English learners especially EFL learners. As a foreign language, English is rarely used in communication by EFL learners in their daily life. Therefore, the learners or students always face some difficulties/problems in listening comprehension. It can be seen from the results of their tests. The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems occur in listening class of EFL students at IAIN Kudus and the solutions to overcome those problems. The EFL students in this study refer to the English Education Department students of IAIN Kudus. The participants of this study are the second semester of English Education Department students. This study is a qualitative research. Observation, interview and documentation were conducted to collect the data. By conducting this study, several problems in listening comprehension can be revealed. The listening problems encountered by the EFL students are the pronunciation (accents), speedy delivery and length of the listening, physical conditions, unfamiliar vocabularies and terminologies, and limited facility for listening. Some actions should be done to overcome these obstacles occurred during listening process. The solutions to overcome the problems are students should be focus, practice more in listening English, memorize vocabularies, and prepare a language laboratory.
As Educators it is vital to learn the limitations, and requirements of the
students and design or revise a curriculum to fill the lacunae. This study aimed to
compare the students’ performance in their proficiency and placement tests and their
own self perception of their English language skills. The study was conducted in RAK
Medical and Health Sciences University located in The United Arab Emirates. The
participants were first year students from Medicine, Pharmacy, Dental and Nursing
colleges. Questionnaires were distributed among the students to analyse their needs
in their English course. The results are compared to their proficiency and placement
test results and needs analyses tries to find areas of weakness or strength of the
students to tailor courses according to their needs or to provide the students with
suitable instruction. The results of the questionnaires showed that students’ selfperception of their skills corresponded with their expression of their linguistic
requirements for their professions.
The present study investigated the potential of podcasting and vodcasting technology in promoting extensive listening and improving overall L2 listening skills. Forty-nine college-level EFL students took part in this year-long study. Data, coming from listening log assignments, listening progress tests, proficiency tests and a listening log questionnaire, were both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and interpreted. Results show that students spent approximately one hour per week on extensive listening with podcasts or vodcasts outside the classroom. Vodcasts were found to be less commonly preferred than podcasts by students. Further, as measured by listening progress tests and proficiency tests, students were able to make significant progress in their overall listening skills by the end of the year. Additionally, students found extensive listening practice with podcasts and vodcasts highly effective not only in helping them improve as L2 listeners but also enhancing their pronunciation abilities and knowledge of words and phrases. Yet, students reported being occasionally frustrated with the pace of speech in podcasts and vodcasts. Overall, this study suggests that developing certain language skills can be boosted with digital technologies at our fingertips.
This study aimed at investigating on factors affecting the attitudes of grade 10 students towards learning EFL in Debremarkos Comprehensive Secondary School in Debre Markos town, Ethiopia. The researcher randomly selected 103 sample students (10%) out of the total population (1030) for the study. In order to gather data, a questionnaire was carefully and systematically adapted and designed. Nine sample students were also selected purposely for focus group discussion, and Grade 10 English teachers were selected for the interview. Then, the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study mainly showed that the attitudes of grade 10 students towards learning EFL is positive. There are social factors (e.g., English native speakers, peer groups and learners’ parents) affecting students’ attitudes positively. On the other hand, educational context factors like English language teachers, the English language learning situations (e.g., the classrooms, arrangements of seats and the physical learning environment) had negative impacts on students’ attitude. However, the findings showed that target language learners have positive attitudes towards the other educational context factor that is the English textbook of grade 10 which means English as a foreign language teaching materials in the study’s context affect students’ attitudes positively. By lowering the psychological variables (i.e. affective filters) for the target language learners, it is possible to aid the language learning process. Thus, as the implication of this study considers, the physical learning environment should be improved, and to achieve this, the government should work in conjunction with the school principals, teachers and societies.
Listening skills should be given more attention as listening takes precedence over anything else when it comes to acquiring a language (Putriani, Sukirlan & Supriyadi, 2013). Even with the booming of various technology to facilitate teaching and learning of listening skills in class, the assessment conducted to identify students’ level of understanding of certain topic is still not up-to-date and not parallel with the advancement of technology. The current studies show that the use of mobile apps for listening purpose is proven to be effective in reducing students’ anxiety (Rahimi & Soleymani, 2015), sustaining students’ motivation (Read & Kukulska-Hulme, 2015), and improving students’ linguistic competencies (Ramos & Valderruten, 2017). This study is aimed to test the effectiveness of mobile application in assessing students’ listening skills. Diploma students from various faculties in UiTM Shah Alam were randomly chosen to answer listening comprehension questions via the prototype developed, named Pocket E-Li. The results demonstrate that the majority of the students provided positive response towards the implementation of mobile application for listening assessment. Almost all respondents agreed that listening assessment should be conducted via mobile application in the future. It can be concluded that listening assessment via mobile application is beneficial to students since it meets the students’ demands and needs which is equivalent with the use of current technology.
Listening has long been recognized as a challenging skill for teachers, students and researchers working within the ESL/EFL contexts. Moreover, up until the recent past, it was the least researched of the four language skills in second language acquisition studies. One of the issues regarding the skill that has not been sufficiently investigated is EFL teachers’ views on listening difficulties their students face. This study, therefore, investigates 208 teachers’ views on listening difficulties among Iranian EFL learners. A mixed methods approach, integrating a questionnaire and an interview, was employed. Results from the questionnaire suggested that the top ten identified difficulties ranged from practical issues such as poor quality audio materials to content-based impediments such as unfamiliar topics. Furthermore, ANOVA tests revealed that there was no significant relationship between either the teachers’ educational or professional background and the gravity of the difficulties they reported. Among different components of the questionnaire, the input and process components were highly correlated, indicating that learners’ problems with input perception could lead to problems in listening comprehension. Moreover, based on the results of the interviews, it was concluded that the teachers believed that the learners’ listening difficulties belonged to three categories, namely pronunciation-based, individual-characteristics-based and content-based difficulties. This study suggests that overcoming listening difficulties without listening strategies, though not impossible, seems to be much more time-consuming. Therefore, there are many benefits to both students and teachers if some class time is dedicated to acquaint learners with the strategies.
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The objective of this research is to know the strategies in acquiring listening comprehension used by English students in English classes of Islamic university in Bengkulu, Indonesia. The data of the research included questionnaire and interview the result of this research, there were two strategies in acquiring listening: First in direct strategies they were memory, cognitive and compensation strategies. Second in indirect strategies they are metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Especially in direct strategies, memory was the most strategy was chosen by students in the second semester. Indirect strategies, social was the most strategy was chosen by student. So the most strategies used by English students are memory and social strategy.
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The objective of this research is to know the strategies in acquiring listening comprehension used by English students in English classes of Islamic university in Bengkulu, Indonesia. The data of the research included questionnaire and interview the result of this research, there were two strategies in acquiring listening: First in direct strategies they were memory, cognitive and compensation strategies. Second in indirect strategies they are metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Especially in direct strategies, memory was the most strategy was chosen by students in the second semester. Indirect strategies, social was the most strategy was chosen by student. So the most strategies used by English students are memory and social strategy
In the recent era, a wider global community has used English for any purpose; one of the most important is academic purposes. In terms of academic purposes, learning English now becomes a must for any students all around the world, specifically EFL students. Focusing on the learning English issue, this research took a rare case about the EFL students do a study abroad program in a non-English speaking country, especially in the context of English learning problems and strategies. Under a qualitative case study, the researcher addressed two main methods to two international EFL students at a private Islamic university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. By using reflective essays and interviews as the methods, the data concluded that most of the problems found had similarities to the EFL students’ problems when they study in their home country. Along with the problems, the researcher also discovered strategies done by both of the participants to resolve the problems.
The objective of this study was to describe the language learning strategies used by students with different listening achievement. Seventy students from two classes were chosen to participate in this study by using a convenience sampling technique. They were divided into three achievement groups based on the achievement group’s technique by Arikunto (2006). Listening achievement test and modified Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire were used to collect data. The design of this research was descriptive quantitative.
The study found that high, intermediate, and low achievement group used all six kinds of strategy. High achievement group used strategies more often than intermediate, and low achievement group. Metacognitive strategies were the most used strategies for high, intermediate, and low achievement group. In contrast, affective strategies were the least used strategies for high, and intermediate achievement group. Meanwhile, compensation was the least used strategy for low achievement group.
Subtitle refers to the time-synchronized text on a video that translates the spoken audio to another language. This research deals with the effect of watching subtitled video material on the vocabulary acquisition (incidental) of the Filipino learners of English with an emphasis on the receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. The study was participated by 100 university students in a private higher education institution in the Philippines. The study used a pretest and posttest design in which the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale developed by Paribakht and Wesche (1993) was employed. The results show that there is a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest performance in vocabulary acquisition in terms of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of the participants. The findings imply the integration of subtitled video material in the teaching of vocabulary in Philippine classrooms because of its effectiveness which, up to this point, is not yet realized.
When learning English, learners might face a challenging task in mastering pronunciation due to differences in both languages such as sound-to-letter correspondence, size of phoneme inventory, allophonic realization of sounds, place and manner of articulation, among others. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review both theoretical and research reports on the most problematic sounds for Spanish-speakers English language learners. Approaches to second language learners’ errors like Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis although being criticized have contributed to identifying likely causes of errors and dealing with them whether anticipating them or providing appropriate feedback on them. Besides, first language interference and age of second language acquisition have been found as complicating factors in the English pronunciation learning process. Finally, some classroom activities have been reported as successful for facilitating English pronunciation in Spanish native speakers.
It is vital to understand the listening problems students face in a foreign language (FL) classroom. In the current study, students were provided with options to identify these problems. Twenty-eight A1 level Turkish secondary school students worked in pairs and had autonomy to control the audio while listening. While dialogic exchanges illustrated articulated listening comprehension problems in a natural and observable way, self-control data enabled the researcher to observe how students chose to operate the input after encountering such difficulties. Students mostly experienced problems related to process, listener, affect, and input, followed by social- and task-related problems. The most frequent problems were mental translation, inability to chunk streams of speech and difficulty keeping pace with the delivery. In terms of self-controlling the input, students operated the audio mainly to check understanding and catch up with the speed of speech. With the help of these valuable data, the current study aims to highlight the possible benefits of peer interaction by portraying how students experienced and shared the mental, affective, and social processes involved in listening.
The study aims to find out the effects of authentic video materials on foreign language listening skill and foreign language listening anxiety of students studying at different levels of English proficiency. The experimental practices of the research designed as pretest-posttest true experimental design with control group have been conducted on two experimental and two control groups. While the independent variables of the study are authentic videos and English proficiency levels, the dependent variables are English listening academic achievement levels and English listening anxiety levels of the students. The participants of the research consisted of 100 randomly selected students, who have A1 and B1 levels of English proficiency, studying English preparatory program at the school of foreign languages at a state university. Data collection tools utilized in the study are Key English Test (KET) and Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FOLLAS). The statistical analysis of the research data was carried out by using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, effect size tests and correlation analysis. Findings show that authentic video materials reflecting the real language and communication samples, have highly effective results on the development of English listening skills and lowering the foreign language listening anxiety of students who have A1 and B1 levels of English proficiency. On the other hand, as students' language proficiency improves, the impact of authentic videos increases. Finally, when it is compared to control groups, values obtained by the analysis reveal that there is a much stronger correlation among the development of listening, reading, writing and speaking language skills of experimental group students whose English listening skills have improved by using authentic videos.
A wide range of English teaching and learning approaches have emerged due to information and communication technology advancement. Podcasting is one such novel tool being exploited by teachers to enhance language skills and to encourage learning outside the classroom. Research on podcasting pedagogy suggests that podcasting helps learners boost their English language skills and support areas such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. This study proves that teaching listening to students by using podcasts makes it possible to increase student listening comprehension, as this technology provides students with authentic and contextual material. The findings also suggest that such listening practice should be an integral part of ESL teaching at university level.
The present study investigates the self-reported frequency of watching authentic English videos by university EFL students with the intent of practicing listening comprehension skills. The subjects, 37 Slovak university students, were divided into two groups: 17 first-year B.A. students and 20 first-year M.A. students with the same major Teaching Training: English Language and Literature. Both groups filled in a questionnaire regarding their watching of authentic English videos. The findings suggest that both groups of subjects reported viewing English videos either every day or every other day, which could be considered extensive listening practice. The subjects seem to watch videos on video sharing websites and social networking websites fairly frequently as the majority of B.A. and M.A. students chose every day or every other day options in the questionnaire. Moreover, the participants considered practicing listening outside classroom through viewing English videos as beneficial to the development of their listening skills. This indicates that watching authentic English videos should have a place in EFL learning.
p>This study is aimed at verifying the finding of a study on what learning strategies applied by the students in writing text and the impact of learning strategies toward the students’ writing score. This is a qualitative descriptive study, and it is conducted at Communication Science Department of the Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo. The instruments used to collect the data were observation, documentations, and questionnaire. After analyzing the data, it is found that the learning strategies used by the students in writing English text are metacognitive strategies, compensation strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies, memory strategies, and social strategies. The students use learning strategies in moderate level which means they sometimes use these learning strategies. Moreover, learning strategies influence the students’ writing score; the students who get good score use metacognitive strategies and the students who get fair score use affective strategies.</p
The study aims at finding the problems encountered by the students in listening comprehension. Descriptive method was used to analyze and to find the solution about the problems. The research was conducted in State Islamic University of Alauddin Makassar. The population of this study was second semester students of English Education Department of Tarbiyah and Teacher training Faculty Academic year 2016/2017. There were 37 students as the subject in this study. Data were gathered by questionnaire and interview while observation during listening was used to confirm students’ answer. The result of analyzing students’ difficulties toward listening comprehension showed that listening is very difficult skill for students who study foreign language. It was based on three factors influencing their listening; they were listening material, listener factor, and physical setting. Therefore, accents, pronunciation, speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary, different accent of the speakers, lack of concentration, and bad quality of recording were the major problems encountered by students’ English Education Department. Understanding students’ difficulties enable the lecturer to help the students developing the effective learning strategies and ultimately improve their listening. Solutions to overcome the problems were: the teacher should adapt and improve listening material, activate students’ vocabulary, give the students variety of accent while practice listening in language laboratory, improve their pronunciation by training from native speakers, building students’ knowledge about the topic, give some strategy in listening, and always motivate students. The solutions were made as a suggestion for the lecturers.
Listening skills have been a great concern for both researchers and teachers trying to promote communicative competence. The purpose of this study is to find out to what extend listening is important in gaining communicative competence. 100 university level preparatory class students were chosen as subjects of the study. Students took formal listening and speaking classes for one term and at the end of the term they took a written exam for listening class and an oral exam for speaking class. The data obtained from the exam results were analyzed and interpreted. Keywords: Listening skills, communication, preparatory class students, formal listening, communicative competence.
p>Las posibilidades del ciberespacio en el mundo educativo van más allá de sus aportes como medio de información o fuente de recursos didácticos y comunicativos. Permite a los estudiantes desarrollar capacidades y tomar conciencia de sus opiniones formadas a partir de la reflexión crítica y la autonomía. El acceso al ciberespacio posibilita la apropiación de contenido y la construcción conjunta del mismo en colaboración con otros usuarios. En este sentido, la relación entre tecnología y educación se hace más patente y necesaria.
Este artículo de carácter reflexivo, parte de una investigación cualitativa de tipo hermenéutico, presenta los resultados, producto de los procesos de interactividad de los estudiantes de grado octavo del Colegio León de Greiff, del Municipio de Aguazul, con la web Rosseta Stone. A través de dicho análisis se evidencia la potencialización del idioma inglés con dicha web y se formulan algunas estrategias pedagógicas que permiten el aprovechamiento del ciberespacio dentro y fuera del aula de clase.</p
Listening is one of the most important skills in English language learning. When students listen to English language, they face a lot of listening difficulties. Students have critical difficulties in listening comprehension because universities and schools pay more attention to writing, reading, and vocabulary. Listening is not an important part of many course books and most teachers do not pay attention to this important skill in their classes. In this paper, the researchers reviewed the terms listening, listening comprehension, listening comprehension strategies, and listening difficulties. The review of literature indicated that when teachers are aware of students’ learning difficulties they can help them develop effective listening strategies and finally solve their difficulties in listening and improve their listening comprehension abilities.
Over the past few years, foreign language didactics and foreign language teaching have been influenced by different kinds of emphases and practices. Foreign language didactics can be approached as part of subject didactics and pedagogy, but we must, at the same time, pay enough attention to the changes that have taken place in neighbouring sciences. We regard foreign language didactics as an extensive subject-didactic component of educational sciences, with a research emphasis on the teaching–studying–learning (TSL) process, in which studying foreign languages is equally important as teaching and learning them.
We argue that foreign language didactics must be approached not only in a multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinary manner but also as a transdisciplinary science that has an autonomy of its own. This interpretation must be linked to the conception of language, language proficiency, foreign language teaching and studying. In our opinion, foreign language education serves well as the professional scientific background for language teachers, in the same way as didactics is regarded in Finland as the professional and scientific basis for the teaching profession. Further, we argue that in didactics it is still important how the teacher makes the student to study and to learn. Certain features that are essential for the foreign language didactic process, and which are in an interactional relationship between each other, include the following: purposiveness (intentionality), cultural context, interaction, content and methods. These can also be studied from the perspective of different language affordances. Foreign language teaching itself has developed over the past few decades from closed to open systems. This can be exemplified by the shift from drill methodology towards communicative language teaching; CLT). Another shift has taken place from the emphasis on medium to an emphasis on mediation. The current focus on communicative mediation is clearly reflected in the increasingly growing methodologically-critical, eclectic approach. Foreign language education, foreign language teaching and the views on language proficiency have also been strongly influenced by the changes in conceptions of knowledge and learning in the direction of socio-constructivism and socio-culturalism.
At present, a foreign language is a skill subject, a knowledge subject and a cultural subject (LOPS, 2003) and, at its best, an empowering mediator that has an impact on an individual’s whole personality (Tella, 1999). Foreign language didactics and foreign language teaching also have an impact on the realisation of various social, societal and moral values as part of large structures of our contemporary society.
Key words: foreign language didactics; didactics; pedagogy; foreign language teaching; teaching–studying–learning process; foreign language; language proficiency; affordance; socio-constructivism; socio-culturalism; societal development.
Abstrakti
Kielididaktiikka (foreign language didactics) ja kieltenopetus (foreign language teaching) ovat viime vuosina omaksuneet monenlaisia uusia painotuksia ja käytänteitä. Kielididaktiikkaa voi lähestyä osana ainedidaktiikkaa (subject didactics) ja pedagogiikkaa (pedagogy), mutta samalla ottaen huomioon niitä muutoksia, joita lähitieteissä on tapahtunut. Ymmärrämme kielididaktiikan laaja-alaisesti vieraan kielen opetus–opiskelu–oppimisprosessia (teaching–studying–learning process) tutkivana kasvatustieteen (educational sciences) ainedidaktisena osa-alueena, jossa vieraan kielen opiskelu edustuu tasaveroisena opetuksen ja oppimisen rinnalla.
Väitämme, että kielididaktiikkaa on lähestyttävä ei vain monitieteisenä (multidisciplinary), tieteiden välisenä (interdisciplinary) ja poikkitieteisenä (cross-disciplinary) vaan myös tiederajat ylittävänä (transdisciplinary) omana tieteenalueenaan. Samalla se on kytkettävä käsitykseen kielestä, kielitaidosta (language proficiency), kieltenopetuksesta ja -opiskelusta. Mielestämme kielididaktiikka toimii hyvin kieltenopettajien ammatillisena tiedetaustana, samalla tavalla kuin didaktiikkaa pidetään Suomessa opettajan ammatin tiedeperustana. Väitämme, että didaktiikassa on edelleen tärkeää se, kuinka opettaja saa oppilaan opiskelemaan ja oppimaan. Vieraan kielen didaktisessa prosessissa ovat olennaisia vuorovaikutuksessa keskenään olevat tavoitteisuus, kulttuurikonteksti, vuorovaikutus, sisältö ja menetelmät. Näitä voidaan tarkastella myös erilaisten kielellisten tarjoumien, affordanssien, näkökulmasta. Kieltenopetus itsessään on kehittynyt viimeisinä vuosikymmeninä suljetuista avoimempiin järjestelmiin, esimerkkinä siirtymät drillimetodiikasta viestinnälliseen kieltenopetukseen (communicative language teaching; CLT) ja välineestä välitteisyyteen (from medium to mediation). Viestinnällisen välitteisyyden painottuminen ilmenee metodisesti kriittisen, eklektisen lähestymistavan voimistumisena. Kielididaktiikkaan, kieltenopetukseen ja käsitykseen kielitaidosta ovat voimakkaasti vaikuttaneet myös tiedon- ja oppimiskäsityksissä (conceptions of knowledge and learning) tapahtuneet muutokset kohden sosiokonstruktivismia ja sosiokulturismia.
Vieras kieli on nykykatsannossa taito-, tieto- ja kulttuuriaine (LOPS, 2003) sekä parhaimmillaan ihmisen kokonaispersoonallisuutta valtauttava mediaattori (empowering mediator; Tella, 1999). Kielididaktiikka ja kieltenopetus vaikuttavat osaltaan monenlaisten yhteiskunnallisten, sosiaalisten ja moraalisten arvojen toteutumiseen osana laajoja yhteiskunnallisia rakenteita.
Asiasanat: kielididaktiikka, didaktiikka, pedagogiikka, kieltenopetus, opetus–opiskelu–oppimisprosessi, vieras kieli, kielitaito, tarjouma, sosiokonstruktivismi, sosiokulturismi, yh-teiskunnallinen kehitys.
Abstrakt
Die Fremdsprachendidaktik und der Fremdsprachenunterricht sind in den letzten Jahren auf vielerlei Weise neu betont und von vielerlei neuen Praxen beeinflusst worden. Die Fremd-sprachendidaktik kann als ein Teil der Fachdidaktik und Pädagogik angesehen werden, aber gleichzeitig sollten die in den benachbarten Wissenschaften stattgefundenen Veränderungen berücksichtigt werden. Unter dem Terminus „Fremdsprachendidaktik“ wird ein fachdidaktisches Teilgebiet der Erziehungswissenschaft verstanden, dass den LehrStudier–Lernprozess umfassend untersucht, und in dem das aktive Lernen der fremden Sprache eine gleichrangige Stellung neben dem Unterricht und dem Fremdsprachenerwerb erhält. Wir behaupten, dass die Fremdsprachendidaktik nicht lediglich als ein multi-, inter- und querdis-ziplinärer sondern auch als ein transdisziplinärer, die Grenzen der verschiedenen Wissen-schaften überschreitender, eigenständiger Wissenschaftszweig angesehen werden soll. Sie muss gleichzeitig mit dem Sprachbegriff, der Sprachkenntnis, dem Sprachunterricht und dem aktiven Sprachenlernen verbunden werden. Unseres Erachtens dient die Fremdsprachendi-daktik als geeignete wissenschaftliche Grundlage für den Beruf des/der Fremdsprachenlehrer/in. In ähnlicher Weise wird in Finnland die Didaktik für die wissenschaftliche Grundlage des Lehrerberufs gehalten. Wir sind der Meinung, dass es im Bereich der Didaktik nach wie vor von großer Bedeutung ist, wie die Lehrkraft den Lernenden zum aktiven Lernen veranlasst. Wesentliche Bestandteile im didaktischen Prozess einer Fremdsprache sind die Zielstrebigkeit, der Kulturkontext, die Interaktion, der Inhalt und die sprachlichen Verfahren. Diese können auch aus dem Blickwinkel verschiedener sprachlicher Angebote, Affordanzen, betrachtet werden. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich der Fremdsprachenunterricht aus den geschlossenen Systemen in Richtung offenere Lösungen entwickelt, z.B. die Übergänge von der Drillmethodik zum kommunikativen Fremdsprachenunterricht und vom einzelnen Medium in Richtung Mediation. Die Betonung der kommunikativen Mediation spiegelt sich in der Methodik dadurch wider, dass die kritische und eklektische Vorgehensweise verstärkt wird. Die Fremdsprachendidaktik, der Fremdsprachenunterricht und das Verständnis der Sprachkompetenz sind stark von den Wissensauffassungen und Lernkonzepten beeinflusst worden, die sich nach dem Soziokonstruktivismus und dem Soziokulturismus richten. Der heutigen Ansicht nach ist die Fremdsprache ein Können-, Wissen- und Kulturfach. Sie ist bestenfalls ein vielfältigender Mediator, der das Wachstum der Gesamtpersonalität des Menschen unterstützt (Tella 1999). Die Fremdsprachendidaktik und der Fremdsprachenunterricht beeinflussen ihrerseits die Verwirklichung mannigfaltiger gesellschaftlicher, sozialer und moralischer Werte als ein Teil umfassender gesellschaftlicher Strukturen.
Schlüsselbegriffe: Fremdsprachendidaktik, Didaktik, Pädagogik, Fremdsprachenunterricht, Lehr–Studier–Lernprozess, Fremdsprache, Sprachkenntnis, Affordanz, Soziokonstruktivis-mus, Soziokulturismus, gesellschaftliche Entwicklung.
The goal of this study was to check the impact of the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) compared to traditional training on enhancing intermediate EFL learners' listening and speaking abilities. An Oxford Quick Placement Test was given to 105 participants to meet the study's goals, and 78 participants were chosen in the end. They were then randomly assigned to the control group (CG) and the experimental group (EG). Validated listening and speaking tests were given to them as a pre-test before they began treatment. The EG subsequently started treatment, which included teaching and learning listening and speaking skills through ALM. At the same time, the CG received traditional training, which included instruction based on the teacher's instances and exercises. The two groups were given the identical listening and speaking test as the post-test after 20 sessions of treatment. In addition, after the post-test was administered, a questionnaire comprising twelve items was distributed among 15 teachers teaching at different institutes to seek their views and perspectives regarding the application of ALM in teaching listening and speaking skills. Paired and Independent Samples t-tests were used to assess the data. The results revealed that the EG outperformed the CG by a substantial margin. The EG outperformed the CGs in both skills. The findings imply that ALM may be utilized in English classes to help EFL students improve their listening and speaking abilities.
Systematic reviews were conducted in the nineties and early 2000's on online learning research. However, there is no review examining the broader aspect of research themes in online learning in the last decade. This systematic review addresses this gap by examining 619 research articles on online learning published in twelve journals in the last decade. These studies were examined for publication trends and patterns, research themes, research methods, and research settings and compared with the research themes from the previous decades. While there has been a slight decrease in the number of studies on online learning in 2015 and 2016, it has then continued to increase in 2017 and 2018. The majority of the studies were quantitative in nature and were examined in higher education. Online learning research was categorized into twelve themes and a framework across learner, course and instructor, and organizational levels was developed. Online learner characteristics and online engagement were examined in a high number of studies and were consistent with three of the prior systematic reviews. However, there is still a need for more research on organization level topics such as leadership, policy, and management and access, culture, equity, inclusion, and ethics and also on online instructor characteristics.
The application of audiovisual translation (AVT) to foreign language (L2)
education dates back to the 1980s, when some scholars started to use subtitles
as a support within language laboratories to improve a series of L2 skills
(Holobow et al. 1984; Vanderplank 1988). A lot has changed since then, both
in terms of the methodological implementation of AVT as a didactic resource
in this context, and in the audiovisual world, as technology has vertiginously
advanced in the last decades.
The present chapter describes the didactic value of AVT in L2 education,
by defining the practice and presenting the main AVT modes that may be
applied to the pedagogical context, explaining what should be understood by
their pedagogical applications and offering a series of guidelines for practitioners. To complement this description, a state of the art of this subarea of
research in AVT will be provided, so as to allow the reader to have access to
the main work carried out in this field. Finally, the conclusions of the chapter
will include social implications and future prospects.
Digital technologies have been widely used to enhance language learning, the effectiveness of which has been acknowledged in the literature. With the rapid development of digital devices and technologies, increasing technologies have been used in the most recent several years, leading to more diversified approaches to language education. This exceptional advance over the past few years calls for a summary of state-of-the-art technologies that have been used to enhance language learning and promote effective learning. The present study was conducted to fill this gap by reviewing all the relevant publications in 10 widely recognised journals in the field of technology-enhanced language learning. An analysis of 57 articles indicated five major types of technology for second and foreign language learning (i.e. technologies for mobile learning, multimedia learning and socialisation, speech-to-text and text-to-speech recognition, and digital-game-based learning). The results also showed four primary purposes and benefits of the state-of-the-art technologies: promoting practices, delivering instructional content, facilitating interactions, and restructuring teaching approaches. Moreover, these state-of-the-art technologies have been integrated into various aspects of language teaching and learning, the overall impact of which has been positive.
Digital gamification has been argued to be a fun and enjoyable method to support Learning English as a Second Language (LESL) and to ease the gap between students’ learning and educational practice. This systematic review presents an overview of the state of the art on the use of gamification for LESL in digital environments. Furthermore, this review study maps learning experiences of learners and their learning outcomes when they deal with LESL through gamification. For this systematic review, 22 publications dating from 2008 through 2019 were studied to highlight the foci of this field of research. Although, these studies reported positive effects of gamification on learners’ learning experiences and their learning outcomes, none of the publications reported specific gamification elements associated to the learning experiences and outcomes. Being enjoyable, engaging, motivating and fun were positive learning experiences of gamified LESL environments. Content language learning, engagement, motivation, and satisfaction were targeted learning outcomes of gamified LESL. The results of this study provide suggestions on how to design digital gamification for students’ LESL and their corresponding learning experiences and outcomes.
The efficacy of decellularized products for healing of acute and chronic wounds mostly relies on physical and chemical properties, processing methods and host response. Human Amniotic Membrane (HAM) is considered as an effective and highly used wound dressing in clinic. According to the proposed decellularization protocols for developing of HAM, we have compared different protocols to introduce the most efficient methods, which can be used as a functional dermal matrix. In this study, different methods of HAM decellularization were used to achieve an optimal process. After achievement of appropriate decellularized method in vitro the amniotic membrane were examined in term of animal in vivo study and human clinical trial. The results of in vitro and in vivo assay indicate that the HAMs which were prepared with peracetic acid (2 M) had a significantly different in term of GAGs quantification, DNA isolation and quantification, histological assessment, collagen analysis, Cell-Tissue Interaction Study and cytotoxicity (P < 0/05). Tissue samples treated with peracetic acid (2 M) were more acceptable than that of samples prepared with other protocols in terms of preserving natural components and structure and removing of cell fragments. The peracetic acid-processed HAM was further functionally evaluated through in vivo assessments that can further lead to tissue reconstruction within the human host.
Taking advantage of the vast history of theoretical and empirical findings in the learning literature we have inherited, this research offers a synthesis of prior findings in the domain of empirically evaluated active learning strategies in digital learning environments. The primary concern of the present study is to evaluate these findings with an eye towards scalable learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emerged as the new way to reach the masses with educational materials, but so far they have failed to maintain learners' attention over the long term. Even though we now understand how effective active learning principles are for learners, the current landscape of MOOC pedagogy too often allows for passivity — leading to the unsatisfactory performance experienced by many MOOC learners today. As a starting point to this research we took John Hattie's seminal work from 2008 on learning strategies used to facilitate active learning. We considered research published between 2009 and 2017 that presents empirical evaluations of these learning strategies. Through our systematic search we found 126 papers meeting our criteria and categorized them according to Hattie's learning strategies. We found large-scale experiments to be the most challenging environment for experimentation due to their size, heterogeneity of participants, and platform restrictions, and we identified the three most promising strategies for effectively leveraging learning at scale as Cooperative Learning, Simulations & Gaming, and Interactive Multimedia.
Children learn language more easily than adults, though when and why this ability declines have been obscure for both empirical reasons (underpowered studies) and conceptual reasons (measuring the ultimate attainment of learners who started at different ages cannot by itself reveal changes in underlying learning ability). We address both limitations with a dataset of unprecedented size (669,498 native and non-native English speakers) and a computational model that estimates the trajectory of underlying learning ability by disentangling current age, age at first exposure, and years of experience. This allows us to provide the first direct estimate of how grammar-learning ability changes with age, finding that it is preserved almost to the crux of adulthood (17.4 years old) and then declines steadily. This finding held not only for “difficult” syntactic phenomena but also for “easy” syntactic phenomena that are normally mastered early in acquisition. The results support the existence of a sharply-defined critical period for language acquisition, but the age of offset is much later than previously speculated. The size of the dataset also provides novel insight into several other outstanding questions in language acquisition.
Listening is a critical communication skill and therefore an essential element of management education. Active listening surpasses passive listening or simple hearing to establish a deeper connection between speaker and listener, as the listener gives the speaker full attention via inquiry, reflection, respect, and empathy. This article offers a method and tools for teaching active listening that can be implemented in online, hybrid, or face-to-face platforms. We begin by reviewing the great demand for listening skills, in light of how little time is spent on listening instruction compared with that on speaking instruction. We then present a set of learning materials and a procedure for using them that includes both pre- and posttests, multimedia learning materials, and exercises that enhance skill development. We follow the learning plan with analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data, showing support for the suggested method. These results fit with our personal experience of consistent success with the method across student levels (graduate and undergraduate) and platforms (online and face-to-face). Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the presentation and some implications for teaching listening in management education.
The purposes of this study were 1) to develop the listening skills of university students studying English with the use of video materials and 2) to evaluate students’ attitudes towards the use of video materials in teaching listening skills. The sample of the student population for this study was 41 first-year English major students in the second semester of the academic year 2012 at Thaksin University, Thailand. They were selected by simple random sampling. The study was conducted over 20 teaching periods. The one - group pretest - posttest design was implemented in this study. The instruments used in this study were 1) lesson plans 2) English comprehension tests (pretest and posttest) and 3) a questionnaire of the students’ attitude. Regarding the data analysis, mean, percentage and t-test scores for the dependent sample were employed. The result indicated that 1) the students’ English listening comprehension ability increased significantly after learning with videos and 2) students had positive attitudes towards using videos in teaching listening skills.
