scholarly journals ASSESSING THE ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS OF FINAL YEAR ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) EDUCATIONS STUDENTS TO DETERMINE THEIR PREPAREDNESS AS LANGUAGE TEACHERS: A PRACTICAL APPROACH AT A UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atrimecia Hass ◽  
◽  
Brigitte Lenong ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Organisation Development ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning

The schooling system plays a significant role in teaching basic literacy skills such as reading and writing, yet students from al schooling backgrounds find it challenging to uphold an acceptable standard of academic writing in higher education in comparison with their advantaged peers. The fact that universities have adopted English as the medium for teaching and learning purposes makes it difficult for students to demonstrate the ability to write in their own words, as they are second or third language speakers. Student success at institutions of higher learning depends largely on the adequate mastery of reading and writing skills required by the discipline. The article assesses the academic writing skills of final year education students completing their studies at a University of Technology in South Africa. Thisstudy was necessitated by the realisation that students at both undergraduate and post-graduate level are struggling to express themselves through writing in the academic language which is critical for them to succeed at university. The article draws on a writing process skills questionnaire administered to fourth year students and English lecturers in the Department of Education and Communication Sciences. General academic writing conventions such as organisation, development, building an argument, grammar, and spelling were examined through an academic essay. The results highlight the poor writing skills and lack of mastering of academic writing skills of students.

scholarly journals An Attempt at Promoting Undergraduate Sudanese EFL Students’ Performance in Academic Writing Skills

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Mohammed Ahmed Mudawy
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
University Level

The study aims at suggesting effective methods and techniques that could improve English as a foreign language EFL students’ performance in writing skills. The researcher uses the descriptive, analytical method. Four tools were adopted pretest, post-test, supporting program, and a questionnaire for teachers for collecting data. Twenty-five students in Holy Quran University, Sudan, were chosen purposively, and thirty EFL teachers at a university level were randomly selected as a sample for the study. Ninty percent of the teachers agree on the suggested program and techniques. The findings of the study indicate that: using varied techniques and activities in pre-writing stage promotes students’ performances in writing, integration of reading and writing skills in the classroom improves students’ writing skills, as well as encouraging extensive reading outside the classroom promotes students’ performance in writing skills. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that: teachers should focus on the prewriting stage through different activities as well as reading and writing should be used in an integrated way in-class writing to guide the writing process.

scholarly journals Moving Towards a More Balanced English Teaching: A Case from Taiwanese EFL Classrooms

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia-Ying Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
Attitudes Toward Learning ◽  
School Entrance ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Implicit Curriculum

In recent years, learning English has become a national movement. This article examines the national K-12 English curriculum in Taiwan, with specific criticism offered against some the prevailing practices that occur in Taiwanese classrooms. Influenced by the philosophy of essentialism and by an institutional regard for college and high school entrance requirements, many Taiwanese teachers spend their time teaching to the tests. But the tests only assess a partial range of skills and knowledge that successful language learners need. Teaching is not neutral. So if we examine the implicit curriculum, we could begin to appreciate some of the latent messages sent by schools in Taiwan, including important ones about reading and writing skills and the attitudes toward learning. Even the register of speech varieties and the sociolinguistics aspects of language play some role in the implicit curriculum. At last, the implications of ACTFL standards for language teaching and learning are discussed to further guide the English curriculum in Taiwan.

scholarly journals STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE AMONG MDAB STUDENTS AT UITM MALACCA

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 01-12
Author(s):  
Khalijah Mohd Nor ◽  
Masliza Mohd Razali ◽  
Nashrah Talib ◽  
Nurbarirah Ahmad ◽  
Siti Rosnita Sakarji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Office Management ◽  
Learning Institutions ◽  
Learning English

This study examined students’ problems in learning English as a second language in higher learning institutions. This paper reports on the results of an interview of 30 randomly selected MDAB students of Diploma in Office Management and Technology at UiTM Melaka. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that contribute to the decreasing of students’ achievement in the English language. The discussion revealed the different reasons that students face in speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. In learning a second language, it is of utmost importance that learners receive maximum support in terms of a supportive and conducive learning environment as well as an adequate and meaningful language experience. This research hopes to enlighten students in learning the English language so that they may strive to improve their English skills, thus making language teaching and learning more effective and meaningful for both lecturers and students.

scholarly journals Basic and Advanced Skills They Don’t Have: The Case of Postgraduate and Literature Review Writing

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuang Ching Hei ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Public University ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Student Selection ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Klang Valley ◽  
Advanced Skills

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the difficulties postgraduate students face in writing the literature review for their thesis and dissertation.   Methodology – Seventy postgraduate students from 9 faculties in one public university in the Klang Valley consented to participating in this study. They were 49 Masters candidates and 21 doctoral (PhD) candidates attending a workshop on academic writing. Among them, 31 were Malaysians and 39 were foreigners with majority being Arabs and Africans. After an icebreaking session, participants were asked what their writing diffi culties are when doing their literature review. They were told to write their responses in English in a paper. A linguistic analysis was then applied to the written phrases and expressions which denote their diffi culties. These were then categorised under common themes and manually counted in terms of the frequency.   Findings – A total of 37 categories of diffi culties were detected. They encompassed basic and advanced skills in reading and writing including ‘not knowing what to read’, ‘how to read’, ‘how to start writing’, ‘organising’, ‘doing a critical analysis’, ‘summarising’ and ‘synthesising’.   Significance – The fi ndings imply that most of the participants do not possess the necessary skills of reading and writing which are required in most postgraduate programmes. Thus, it is imperative that institutions of higher learning develop stricter criteria for student selection. Alternatively, a programme providing support in reading and writing may enable these postgraduate students to raise their level before being admitted. This kind of support can help to mitigate the burden imposed on supervisors as well as develop better quality postgraduate students.  

scholarly journals A model of developing language teachers’ professional communicative skills of providing written teacher feedback

Rhema ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 118-135
Author(s):  
T. Ershova
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teacher Feedback ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Training Module ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Special Training ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback

This article looks at the process of assessing L2 student writing and providing written corrective feedback as a part of language teachers’ professional and communicative competences. The author suggests a model of designing a special training module for pre-service teachers aimed at the development of corresponding professional reading and writing skills, as well as the analysis of the results of its approbation.

scholarly journals Impact of ict on writing and reading skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. e34055
Author(s):  
José María Fernández Batanero ◽  
Marta Montenegro Rueda ◽  
José Fernández Cerero ◽  
Pedro Román Gravan
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Effective Integration

Due to the potential of ICT to enhance the development of reading and writing skills, it has become an emerging field of scientific research. The purpose of this work has been to examine scientific literature that investigate the use of ICT in the development of writing and reading skills for the years 2010 and 2020 in five databases. A descriptive and quantitative methodology has been followed to present the most important characteristics and results of the 16 selected scientific articles. In analysis of the research findings we explored the most significant bibliometric data and the effectiveness of ICTs in enhancing the writing and reading skill of students. The results confirmed that, despite the fact that scientific production in this field is still underdeveloped, digital technologies can help in the development of reading and writing skills. There is a need to improve teacher training for the effective integration of technologies in both teaching and learning of reading and writing.

scholarly journals Teacher Preparedness to Utilize Emergent Literacy for Teaching Initial Literacy in Selected Schools of Mansa District

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Samuel Imange ◽  
John Simwinga
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Natural Setting ◽  
Emergent Literacy Skills ◽  
Literacy Knowledge ◽  
Initial Literacy

Effective teaching of initial literacy in Grade 1 demands more of the teacher’s attention to pupils’ emergent literacy skills and consideration of how they learn. The emergent literacy skills children acquire lay a firm foundation for their learning to read and write in the conventional sense. Some of the skills that children develop under emergent literacy include phonological awareness and phonological sensitivity, which give children the ability to hear, recognize, manipulate and distinguish the sounds of the language they have acquired. These are key language skills which teachers will need to utilize in their teaching of reading and writing skills to Grade 1 learners in the classroom. A study was carried out whose purpose was to investigate whether primary school teachers in Mansa District utilized emergent literacy skills in their teaching of conventional reading and writing skills to the learners in Grade 1 considering the fact that emergent literacy lays a firm and solid foundation for continuous development of the literacy skills. The study was a descriptive survey and qualitative in nature since it required the researcher to describe the state of affairs as found and observed in their natural setting in the research sites. The qualitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. The sample for this study comprised 62 Grade 1 teachers and 3,594 Grade 1 primary school pupils. Only those schools teaching initial literacy in the local familiar language using the Breakthrough to Literacy (BTL) methodology were targeted for this research. The findings indicated that: (1) Teachers lacked knowledge about emergent literacy and did not know how useful it was for continuous literacy development among the children. (2) Most of the teachers ignored pupils’ prior literacy knowledge and considered their learners as complete illiterates who knew nothing about literacy skills. (3) Teachers never designed extra teaching and learning materials for teaching literacy. Rather, they relied on the New Breakthrough to Literacy (NBTL) kit materials. (4) The class sizes were large and meaningful scaffolding was lacking in most of the classes. This study concluded that the Ministry of Education in Zambia should consider emergent literacy as the foundation for conventional literacy development in Grade 1. One recommendation was that teachers should be equipped with knowledge of emergent literacy through deliberate training. They need to understand and appreciate emergent literacy as an essential body of knowledge to be utilized for successful conventional literacy development among Grade 1 learners.

scholarly journals Factors that Affect the implementation of Teaching Writing Skills: Focus on Second Cycle Primary Schools in North Shoa

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Seid Mohammed ◽  
Gessese Nigusse ◽  
Zenawi Nigussie ◽  
Belihu Zenebe
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Writing Performance ◽  
English Classes ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Language Instructors ◽  
Instruction And Learning

The purpose of this study was to determine the variables affecting the implementation of writing skills instruction and learning in grades 7 and 8 in North Shoa Zone Second Cycle Primary schools. The study's primary purpose was to determine the difficulties encountered by English language instructors and students while teaching and learning to write in English classes. The research included the participation of 25 English language instructors and 1484 pupils from 14 Second Cycle Primary Schools. A questionnaire and an interview were used to obtain the required data. Questionnaires were completed by instructors and students, and English language teachers were interviewed. The questionnaire data was tallied and examined statistically in terms of frequency and percentage. Similarly, interview data were categorized and qualitatively characterized. The investigation revealed that the majority of instructors and students struggle with teaching and learning writing skills. Additionally, although both English instructors and students believe they are engaging in writing activities in the classroom, the students' writing performance is not as promising as shown by open-ended questions and comments from English language teachers interviewed. Several key suggestions are made in light of the results of this research in order to mitigate the issues that impede the efficient implementation of writing instruction and learning in second cycle primary schools. The primary recommendation is to offer enough training for English language instructors on how to teach writing skills, which will then be conveyed to students in order for them to enhance their writing performance.

scholarly journals Avaliação da linguagem oral e escrita no pré-escolar e nos primeiros anos de escolaridade

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Joana Batalha ◽  
Maria Lobo ◽  
Antónia Estrela ◽  
Bruna Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Reading And Writing

In this article, we present an assessment instrument aimed at diagnosing oral language and reading and writing skills in children attending pre-school (5 years) and the early years of primary school. The instrument was mainly designed for the school context, and it was developed in collaboration with kindergarten educators and primary teachers who participated in PIPALE - Preventive Intervention Project for Reading and Writing, a project which is integrated in the National Program for the Promotion of School Success. The instrument covers the assessment of phonological and syntactic awareness, comprehension of syntactic structures, early literacy, and reading and writing skills (word reading, word and sentence writing, text comprehension, and text production). Besides offering a detailed description of the structure and tasks of the instrument, the present study includes the results of the first implementation of this tool to a total of 495 students in pre-school, first grade and second grade. The results show significant differences between the three groups (pre-school, first grade and second grade) in phonological awareness (identification of initial syllable, initial phoneme and final rhyme) and between the younger groups and the second graders in syntactic awareness (acceptability judgement task) and early literacy skills. As for reading and writing skills, the results show better performance in reading tasks than in writing tasks, a strong significant correlation between phonological awareness and word reading and word writing, and between literacy skills and word reading and writing. We also found a milder correlation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension, as well as text writing. These results suggest that the instrument is effective for an early diagnosis and early intervention of reading and writing skills.

scholarly journals THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULA FOR SECONDARY STAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF EFL TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS IN JORDANTHE ACHIEVEMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULA FOR SECONDARY STAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF EFL TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS IN JORDAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Bani Amer ◽  
Majid Mohammad Al-Khataybeh
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Secondary Stage ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
English Language Teachers

This study aims to investigate whether or not the goals of English language curricula for secondary stage have been achieved from the perspectives of EFL teachers and supervisors in Jordan. The participants were 101 EFL teachers and 8 supervisors in Al_Karak educational directorates of Education during the first semester 2020/2021. The researchers designed a questionnaire consisting of fifty-nine items in four areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, used to collect the data for this study. The findings of this study showed that English language teachers and supervisors were mostly satisfied with the goals of English language curriculum for secondary stage. The means for all the areas according to English language teachers was 3.31 while the means for all the areas according to English language supervisors was 3.27. This implies that English language teachers and supervisors were satisfied with the goals of English language curriculum for secondary stage.

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