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Teaching English as a foreign language for communication in ChinaRongji, Lu, n/a January 1983 (has links)
China urgently needs a large number of interpreters, guides
and teachers who are competent communicators in the English
Language. One of the foreign language institutes that is
attempting to satisfy this need is the Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute (or Erwai).
It is argued that Erwai fails to produce competent
communicators in English, a failure that is seen to be due
to three interdependent factors: 1) the lack of teacher
training, especially in the area of teaching methodology;
2) the resultant inability to select and effectively
exploit teaching materials; and 3) the inappropriateness
of currently-used teaching approaches to the perceived
goals of the Institute.
It is the third of these factors that receives particular
attention in this paper. A survey is made of the merits
and shortcomings of the three teaching approaches that
have been used at Erwai, namely the 'grammar-translation,'
'audio-lingual' and 'cognitive' approaches. This serves as
back-ground to the proposal that a 'communicative approach'
to teaching be introduced at Erwai.
It is claimed that the communicative approach is the most
appropriate to the goals of Erwai students, the majority
of whom will need to be communicatively competent in their
future professions. The communicative approach is applied
to the four basic skills of language and it is suggested
that these skill areas be integrated in the classroom,
rather than be taught in separate courses, as is presently
the case at Erwai.
Finally, the adoption of a communicative approach is seen
to involve changes not only in classroom activities and
materials, but also in the role of the student and the role
of the teacher.
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Comprehension difficulties for Vietnamese EFL students in reading English newspapers : an investigation into styles of reporting international news in English and in Vietnamese, reading problems and implications for teaching news reading to Vietnamese EFL studentsTam, Nguyen Thi Bao, n/a January 1990 (has links)
Foreign language teaching in recent years is very much concerned
with the concepts of authenticity and relevance to students' needs
and interests. Using newspapers in foreign language classes is one
way of working towards the development of an authentic
environment and promoting the language learning process.
For EFL students in the Institute of International Relations (IIR)
newspapers are not simply an important source of learning
material, but an important source of information.
Vietnamese EFL students who learn to read English newspapers,
however, constantly encounter difficulties in comprehension.
This study report attempts to identify the common areas of
comprehension difficulty for Vietnamese learners, when confronted
with newspapers.
To achieve this aim, the study first reviews schema theory in order
to establish the factors which affect the reading process. It also
examines studies on news reporting style in English.
Attempts have also been made in the contrastive study of the
differences in reporting styles of international news in English and
Vietnamese to investigate what might cause difficulties for
Vietnamese readers.
Accordingly, the study considers implications for teaching
newspaper reading to Vietnamese EFL students at intermediate
level, who have not practised this before.
Finally, the study also suggests further areas of research in using
newspapers in a foreign language class.
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News broadcasts and problems for EFL learnersThao, Nguyen Dinh, n/a January 1991 (has links)
English is the language studied by the majority of students at the
Institute of International Relations in Vietnam. News broadcasts
are used as teaching material since, for instance, graduates will
need to monitor news broadcasts as part of their work. Students
constantly encounter difficulties in listening to the news
broadcasts on English-speaking radio. The purpose of this Study is
therefore to identify factors which may cause problems for
Vietnamese listeners to English news broadcasts. This Study
presents the findings from questionnaires related to radio
listening and the findings from an analysis of news extracts in
English and Vietnamese. In the conclusion to the study
implications for the teaching of radio broadcast listening in
Vietnam are discussed.
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Teaching reading to E.F.L. (English as a foreign language) Vietnamese students at the Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers College (HNFLTC)Hoang, Cong Thuy, n/a January 1985 (has links)
Chapter 1 introduces the aims and objectives of the study.
It is followed by an analysis of the present situation at the Hanoi
Foreign Language Teachers College and the problems encountered by
teachers and administrators in ensuring the maximum efficiency of
the EFL programme.
The Report continues by asking a number of pertinent
questions about the methodology and techniques used in the teaching
of reading. This, in turn, is linked with theoretical considerations
which the writer examines at some length taking into account numerous
issues about language processing, cognition, expectation and
motivation, comprehending, discourse analysis, text cohesion and
so on.
Attention is then focused on the reader and the environment
in which he operates. In addition the reading lesson comes under
scrutiny and procedures, as well as material selection and teaching
systems are discussed. Finally the writer attempts to make suggestions
to his colleagues in the EFL field based on his own experience and
convictions.
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Test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) : good indicator for student success at Community Colleges? /Ng, Jacob N. K. January 1900 (has links)
Thesis (Ed. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107). Also available on the World Wide Web.
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Investigating a cognitive linguistic approach to the learning of english phrasal verbsCondon, Nora 26 August 2008 (has links)
This dissertation investigates an area of notorious difficulty for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Research from previous studies has indicated that phrasal verb learning may be more effective if a Cognitive Linguistic approach is adopted. However, the quantitative and qualitative research in this dissertation demonstrates that the approach, once integrated into a regular, classroom-based EFL programme, does not consistently yield significant learning gains. Further qualitative investigations highlighted the fact that the benefits of the approach have less to do with the Cognitive Linguistic explanations than with their compatibility with other learning strategies, such as employing imagery and grouping information. In addition, the approach is most suited to phrasal verbs that are already partially familiar to students. However, for other phrasal verbs the Cognitive Linguistic approach may even impede learning. In addition, the implications for phrasal verb pedagogy are then presented and discussed.
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Investigating a cognitive linguistic approach to the learning of english phrasal verbsCondon, Nora 26 August 2008 (has links)
This dissertation investigates an area of notorious difficulty for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Research from previous studies has indicated that phrasal verb learning may be more effective if a Cognitive Linguistic approach is adopted. However, the quantitative and qualitative research in this dissertation demonstrates that the approach, once integrated into a regular, classroom-based EFL programme, does not consistently yield significant learning gains. Further qualitative investigations highlighted the fact that the benefits of the approach have less to do with the Cognitive Linguistic explanations than with their compatibility with other learning strategies, such as employing imagery and grouping information. In addition, the approach is most suited to phrasal verbs that are already partially familiar to students. However, for other phrasal verbs the Cognitive Linguistic approach may even impede learning. In addition, the implications for phrasal verb pedagogy are then presented and discussed.
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English Language Learning for Adult Immigrant Students in Sweden : Integration, Language, Culture and LearningDogan, Emre January 2013 (has links)
This is a study of English language learning for adult immigrant students in Sweden, and how it affects their integration into society. The primary aim of this study is to highlight and analyze the problems that adult immigrant students face, based on teachers beliefs, when learning English in a foreign country, and is backed up by various secondary sources in the subject as well as data collected in qualitative face-to-face interviews with teachers from adult education centres designed to help immigrant learn the native language as well as English. The results show the teacher viewpoint on the learning problems, which stem from cultural, lexical and mental blockades. They are analyzed according to the research questions and theoretical concepts, and presented with an accompanying discussion that aims to inform of the reader of the current learning situations.
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Volunteer English Teaching Experiences in a Foreign Country: A Case StudyRomero, Gloria 24 August 2012 (has links)
Each year a group of university students from English speaking countries go to Chile and work as volunteers under the National Volunteer Centre Program. The purpose of this case study is to examine how a group of novice volunteer teachers describe their experiences in a foreign country and how these experiences shape their understanding of teaching. Participants went through the process of open-ended questionnaires and one-on-one interviews of their experience. This study was sustained in the literature by the domains of volunteerism, English Language Teaching, and volunteerism and ELT, and a socio constructivist and experiential lens was adopted. Even though volunteer teaching abroad is an increasing worldwide trend, there are few studies that combine these areas, showing that the existing blend of volunteerism and English language teaching needs to be further examined. The analysis of the data showed that novice volunteer teachers experience five types of experiences when teaching English: language teaching experiences, language learning experiences, challenges, general experiences, and volunteering experiences. Novice teachers recalled their expectations before teaching and those were maintained, modified, or unfulfilled. Volunteers stated what teaching means to them after working in public schools, they were able to describe diverse language teaching experiences, and make recommendations to future volunteers.
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Individual Differences and the Learning of Two Grammatical Features with Turkish Learners of EnglishYalcin, Sebnem 04 March 2013 (has links)
This study investigated relationships between individual learner differences and the learning of two English structures that differed in their grammatical difficulty. Using a quasi-experimental design, 66 secondary-level learners of English as a foreign language from three intact classes were provided with four hours of instruction on two L2 structures –one considered relatively easy to learn (i.e., past progressive) and the other relatively difficult to learn (i.e. passive construction). The participants were pretested on their knowledge of both structures and posttested immediately after the instruction. Learners’ progress was measured via written grammaticality judgment tests (GJT) and oral production tasks (OPT). The instruments to measure individual learner differences included a computerized language aptitude test, an L1 metalinguistic awareness test, a motivation questionnaire, a backward digit span test, and a learner retrospection questionnaire.
The results revealed that aptitude and motivation were the two variables that significantly contributed to learners’ gains with respect to the ‘passive’ and that L1 metalinguistic awareness explained significant variation in learners’ gains regarding the ‘past progressive’. These relationships were observed with learners’ performance on the written but not oral measures. A detailed analysis of the aptitude test components revealed that the grammatical inferencing subtask was significantly related to L2 gains on the ‘passive’ – again only with respect to learners’ performance on the written GJT. The results also revealed that learners with different aptitude profiles (i.e., low, medium, high) benefited differently from instruction on the two target features. High aptitude learners performed better than low aptitude learners on the ‘passive’ as measured by the GJT posttest. With respect to the ‘past progressive’ only learners in the medium aptitude profile group improved significantly on the written GJT.
These findings confirm that language aptitude holds a role in language learning but that there are other factors (i.e., motivation and L1 metalinguistic awareness) that also contribute to L2 progress. These results also provide evidence from a classroom-based study that the grammatical difficulty of what is to be learned is a factor in determining what cognitive abilities L2 learners rely on in their efforts to learn a new language.
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