Demonstrating functional interactive language teaching in the Nigerian Universities

Vol. 4  Issue 4
Year:2014
Issue:Oct-Dec
Title:Demonstrating functional interactive language teaching in the Nigerian Universities
Author Name:Bello, Rachael. O. And Oni-Buraimoh, Olawunmi. O
Synopsis:
Applied linguistics affords Linguists the opportunity of solving language related problems using various methods. In this paper, we x-ray the Nigerian University classroom situation in the teaching of the English language viz – a – viz the use of functional interactive method. Following Littlewood (1981) and Krashen (1982), we posit that the teaching and learning of English language in the Nigerian classroom situation needs to be done in two ways, so as to aid easy acquisition of the language: provide natural discourse and the need to put learners at the core of the learning. Apart from these, the teacher's roles are highlighted as: identifying learners' strategy, teaching the standard, accentuating standard not status and providing a comprehensive input. A comprehensive blend of the learners' and teachers' roles will make interaction meaningful in the Nigerian Universities ESL classroom.

How Does Station Teaching Effect Language Learning?

Vol.4  No.3

Year : 2014

Issue : Jul-Sep

Title : How Does Station Teaching Effect Language Learning?

Author Name : K. Suprabha, G. Subramonian

Synopsis :

All across the nation, general and special education teachers, English as a Second Language teachers, and other service providers, such as speech-language pathologists from all grade levels and all content areas, are taking the plunge into co-teaching. Station or rotation teaching is a co-teaching strategy that calls for the designing of at least three workstations or learning centers where students rotate in and out in small groups. In a station teaching approach teachers divide the responsibility for planning and content instruction. Students are rotated between three or more stations, also known as centers, which are either managed by a teacher or assistant or are independent stations. Teachers can work together to determine how many stations are appropriate for a given activity. Independent student workstations should include explicit instructions accompanied by teacher monitoring to ensure that learning objectives are met.

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Mortal Imperfection: The Revenge of The Social Animal in ‘Heart Of Darkness’ and ‘Moby Dick’

Vol.4  No.3

Year : 2014

Issue : Jul-Sep

Title : Mortal Imperfection: The Revenge of The Social Animal in ‘Heart Of Darkness’ and ‘Moby Dick’

Author Name : Sumbal Maqsood

Synopsis :

This paper seeks to explore and peek into the psychological hell of the so-called superior beings who in their megalomaniacal intentions make the world a difficult place to live for some groups based on ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and other differences. It looks into the duplicity and double standards of people and the way they exploit a privileged birthright to target and demean other groups exalting themselves as the preferred 'self' over the marginalized 'others'. The sham of superficial, social lifestyles is exposed as the web of morality and a politicized sense of right and wrong is questioned. Power structures that uphold society are based on flimsy differentiations that utilize the principle of 'might is right' as a power hierarchy is established to subjugate and exploit the less-privileged and weaker groups on Earth. This research challenges the subject-object duality and the veneer of civilization that is rampant in the modern world and that views the world in a sharply divided vision of black and white, ignoring the grey shades where the question of individuality, identity and personality arises-the potency of the beliefs of all beings cannot be neglected by imposing labels of 'savages' and 'barbarians'. The act of imposition by the civilized world over primitive groups itself is an act of savagery and this paper would be questioning why man is unwilling to come to terms with his 'other', the part that completes him and defines him, and is an essential part of his evolving personality. The core of evil and primitivity is ineradicable in every being and it is individuality that will control the behavior, not forcefully imposed social constructs. There is a very thin line between what the civilized world calls 'normal' and what it labels as 'savage' as man was essentially born as natural as the wilderness around him, his soul as unfettered as the soaring eagle. This untamed wilderness is man's reality and when he tries to harness it, he transgresses upon values that are inevitably connected with his history, his evolution, his concept of civilization and his superstructure of formal education. Is it really a civilizing, enlightening mission of transforming brutes into human beings or making others as hypocritical and pretentious as the colonizing powers are, at the expense of personal integrity?

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The Effects of Techniques of Vocabulary Portfolio on L2 Vocabulary Learning

Vol.4  No.3

Year : 2014

Issue : Jul-Sep

Title : The Effects of Techniques of Vocabulary Portfolio on L2 Vocabulary Learning

Author Name : Abbas Ali Zarei, Fahimeh Nasiri Baftani

Synopsis :

To investigate the effects of different techniques of vocabulary portfolio including word map, word wizard, concept wheel, visual thesaurus, and word rose on L2 vocabulary comprehension and production, a sample of 75 female EFL learners of Kish Day language Institute in Karaj, Iran was selected. They were in five groups and each group received vocabulary portfolio in one of the aforementioned techniques. Multiple-choice and Fill-in-the-blanks vocabulary tests were used to measure the participants' comprehension and production of the target words. The obtained data were analyzed using two separate one-way ANOVA procedures. Results indicated that in vocabulary production, the differences among the groups were statistically insignificant, suggesting that despite the observed differences among the means, the performances of these groups were more or less similar. However, there was a significant difference between the means of visual thesaurus and the concept wheel groups in vocabulary comprehension.

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Technology-Enhanced Teaching of Pragmatic Competence

Vol.4  No.3

Year : 2014

Issue : Jul-Sep

Title : Technology-Enhanced Teaching of Pragmatic Competence

Author Name : Servat Shirkhani

Synopsis :

Pragmatic competence has been defined as the ability to express and interpret the intended meaning with regard to the context in which the utterance mentioned has been referred to as one of the main components of communicative ability in a second language (L2). However, various studies have indicated that, this ability does not develop in L2 learners along with their linguistic competence. Therefore, it is necessary to think most of the effective ways and resources for the development of this aspect of communicative competence in L2 learners. Different studies have mentioned lack of enough exposure to the L2 in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context and have called for the necessity of instruction of pragmatic aspects of language in these contexts. This study, admitting the need for the instruction of pragmatics, suggests using the available technology to enhance the learning of this ability in language learners. It suggests teachers to guide their learners to use some technological tools which are easy, quick, and available almost everywhere and at any time in order to enhance their development of pragmatics.

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Changing and Changed Stance Toward Norm Selection in Philippine Universities: Its Pedagogical Implications

Vol.4  No.3

Year : 2014

Issue : Jul-Sep

Title : Changing and Changed Stance Toward Norm Selection in Philippine Universities: Its Pedagogical Implications

Author Name : Alejandro S. Bernardo

Synopsis :

This paper reports the results of a survey, which involved college English teachers from three leading universities in the Philippines. The results point to one conclusion – college English teachers now have a changing and changed stance toward norm selection in Philippines Universities. The results give the impression that a good number of college English teachers now seem to gradually depart from native speakers' norms. Put in another way, they progressively place fewer premiums on total compliance with native speakers' models. This changing and changed stance, the author argues, calls for a new pedagogical decision that involves ESL curricular changes.



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“Cyber” Reading in L2: Online Reading Strategies of Students in a Philippine Public High School

Vol.4  No.2

Year : 2014

Issue : Apr-Jun

Title : “Cyber” Reading in L2: Online Reading Strategies of Students in a Philippine Public High School

Author Name : John Angelo V. De Leon, Veronico N. Tarrayo

Synopsis :

This paper seeks to identify the online reading strategies employed by students in a Philippine Public High School. In particular, the study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What are the online reading strategies used by the respondents (i.e., global, problem-solving, and support)?; (2) What is the frequency of use of the online reading strategies of the respondents?; and (3) What are the implications of the study's findings for English language teaching and learning? By means of the adapted Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) by Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001), data were obtained from 100 readers of a public high school in Quezon City, the Philippines. The analysis of the results revealed that problemsolving strategies were the most frequently used online reading strategies, followed by global reading strategies and support reading strategies. Finally, the results furnish a pedagogical perspective on how online reading strategies can impact second-language or L2 teaching and learning.

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