The utter importance of knowing the English language cannot be denied today. Despite the existence of traditional methods for teaching a language in schools, a big number of children are left without the requisite knowledge of English as a result of which they fail to compete in the modern world. With English being a Lingua Franca, more efforts are mandatory to foster the English language learning abilities. This can be achieved by improving the traditional method of teaching by providing alternative means to ameliorate the effort. Keeping these aspects in view, research is being conducted to evaluate the performance of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) and MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) to teach a language. However, this particular research will bring into the limelight a set of social networking applications commonly found in a mobile phone, which can serve as potential English Language Learning tools, due to the versatility of their features. Keeping in view the theories of Mastery Learning, Operant Conditioning, Sense of Community and Task-Based Teaching Principles, the social networking applications will be assessed. Therefore, this descriptive research aims to bring awareness on how the applications can be utilized to enhance task-based learning of English Language.
It is generally assumed that self-assessment plays a profound role in autonomous language learning and, accordingly, leads to learner independency. It encourages learners to prospect their own language learning processes and provides them with feedback of their learning progress. Self-assessment also raises the awareness of learners’ individual needs among both students and teachers alike and will therefore contribute to the development of the whole learning process. The purpose of the current study is to explore and compare – through self-assessment – the level of perceived difficulty of the overall foreign language learning and language skills among Sudanese students enrolled at the English and German language departments respectively, at the University of Khartoum in Sudan. A representative sample composed of 221 students from the two departments have been asked to self-evaluate and rate the overall language difficulty and areas of difficulty in language skills, as well as their own language proficiency. The results indicate that German language is relatively rated as a difficult language in comparison to the English language and that German grammar was also rated as more difficult. However, students rated the pronunciation and spelling of German language as easier than in English language. Concerning the language skills, reading and speaking skills were reported as more difficult in German, whereas writing and listening tend to be easier than in English. Finally, students’ academic achievements have been self-reported.
It cannot be denied that intercultural understanding is crucial in the process of learning English at elementary school, junior high school, high school, and beyond. This paper analyzes the high school English textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan from the perspective of intercultural understanding. First, it elucidates the types of articles, the countries materials deal with, and the purposes of the materials used in the books. Then it considers important elements of intercultural education. The result of the research shows that the materials contain various kinds of categories, and many concern English-speaking countries. Furthermore, an important fact is that many materials concerning Japan, aimed at understanding its own culture, are shown in the textbooks as well. Finally, the paper suggests future direction for the use of materials in the textbooks in order to facilitate intercultural understanding.
This article presents the classification and description of borrowings from the English language in the sector of special languages with reference to contemporary Italian. The present times are characterized by multiplicity of linguistic variants. Different, ready-made solutions to are observed this complex situation.
The aim of the paper is to answer the question of what is the role of Feedback in the process of learning English as a foreign language. Feedback is an important element of student-teacher interaction in the classroom. Even experienced teachers admit that it is beneficial to put oneself in the student’s position in order to understand their individual needs, and hence adjust the instruction, assessment and feedback moves to aid language acquisition. Since errors are an unavoidable part of the learning process and teachers feel compelled to address students’ spoken errors, it seems significant to consider how the learners perceive the feedback they receive.
This paper deals with the role of Swahili and English in Tanzania. It gave examples of current language use illustrated by written records of middle class people’s verbal interaction. On the strength of the evidence given in the paper it is safe to say that English is advancing and regaining lost grounds. Simultaneously, Swahili is stagnating as long as there is no active Swahili promotion campaign which focuses on the implementation of the language policy formulated after Independence. For the time being, the market forces dictated by foreign companies and a pro-Western political establishment go for a growing role of English in Tanzania. These forces do not care about the Tanzanian people that have only limited access to English in an inefficient education system and are incompetent in this language. This pro-English trend is going to make many Tanzanians step by step to “linguistic strangers” (de Cluver 1993) in their own country.
Before 1989, the main foreign language being taught in Polish schools was Russian, due to the socio-political ties with Moscow. Second and third tier foreign languages were French and Ger-man. After the fall of communism, and especially after Poland joined the EU, the demand for English Translational Studies has grown significantly, at the cost of German programs. In this paper, the authoresses try to analyze the cultural foundations for these phenomena.
Aim. This article presents the results obtained in a qualitative research related to classroom practices and perceptions of teachers of English as a foreign language in Spain. The aim of this study is to present examples of good teaching practices, including the types of resources, materials and assessment used in spoken English teaching. Methods. A qualitative investigation that used ethnographic (non-participant) observation in primary and secondary English classes was implemented in thirty-two schools. Additionally, twenty semi-structured interviews with primary and secondary teachers were conducted. Results and conclusion. The results show significant differences between both applied methods Non-participant observation indicates that spoken communication in English is not practised sufficiently. However, based on interview results, teachers do apply appropriate language learning strategies that could allow them to successfully teach speaking skills in their students. The results imply that in Spain, there are still many teachers and educational institutions that follow the Grammar Translation Method and other traditional methodologies, which still focus primarily on writing skills. However, several examples of good practices and inspiring methodological and motivational strategies have been found throughout this research, which might be considered as a precedent for those that focus on writing approaches. Cognitive value. This article displays an original research supported by University of Oviedo, through which, the reader can approach to the teaching of spoken English in Spain by means of some teachers´ perceptions and examples of good practices.
The article substantiates the importance of using a communicative approach in foreign language teaching. The term “communication” is interpreted by scientists as a totality, meaningful generalisation of theoretical and practical knowledge presented in the form of concepts, principles, provisions that promote mutual understanding, and situations necessary for successful interactions. The purpose of teaching a foreign language in a higher education institution is the possession of future teachers of communicative competencies that allow them to implement their knowledge, skills and abilities to solve creative problems. The principles of communicative learning are determined: the principle of speech and mental activity, individualisation, functionality, and novelty. The main factors of effective application of the communicative approach important for teaching a foreign language are highlighted: communicative orientation of all kinds of training; the main link in learning by their interests, abilities, and needs; teaching materials are presented on a thematic or functional basis. Communicative teaching methods are identified, which are based on a humanistic approach and aimed at the development and self-improvement of the individual, the disclosure of its reserve capabilities and creative potential, create conditions for effective improvement of education in higher education. The scientific novelty of forming students’ communicative skills in higher education institutions is determined by changes in the education system, focusing on the formation of communicative competence of future professionals. The use of pedagogical tasks in foreign language classes allows students to form a communicative culture, skills and abilities of foreign language communication; contributes to the real, personal preparation of students for future professional activities; makes foreign language classes more interesting and meaningful. Orientation of foreign language classes on the development of professionally necessary communicative skills and communicative culture ensures the implementation of the principles of the contextual approach of learning, increases students’ motivation for learning and the success of foreign language learning.
The article deals with the problem of the formation of students’ cognitive independence at heuristic learning of foreign languages. To take into account the increased interest in learning foreign languages more actively various innovative technologies are being introduced in education. They ensure the free choice of the students concerning the forms and methods of learning. The formation of cognitive independence – one of the most important components of self-realization of students’ cognitive and creative potential – is considered the leading requirement for modern education. Heuristic education can be considered the most perspective educational technology that allows personalizing educational process, developing students’ creative abilities, implementing reflection, self-appraisal, self-control and self-organization, as constituents for creative self-realization of the personality. Teachers often conduct the process of learning foreign languages using just reproductive methods without any motivation. Heuristic education provides new didactic reserves for active motivation of students’ cognitive activity during the creation of a significant to them educational product. The last one is a main purpose of the students’ cognitive and creative activity at heuristic learning of foreign languages. It’s such factors as: removal of ratings and time limits, democratic style of communication, the situation of choice, personal significance, productive, creative kind of work with regard to age condition. You need to create situations in which students would have the need and desire to express their views and defend it. Modeling conditions of discussion in educational process advantageously differs from the situations of domestic nature, the discussion is not tied to specific circumstances (theatre restaurant), and the target audience is the natural venue for the debate. The subject of the speech appears as a problem which might cause the professional, personal interest of students taking into account their experience, mental skills and encourage them to express their own point of view. The goal of communication should not be linguistic but practical and caused by the life's needs. In the article we present examples of heuristic cognitive and creative activity that ensures the successful formation of students’ cognitive independence at learning foreign languages. The special attention is drawn to the students’ independent work as one of the forms while performing foreign language tasks.
The urgent problem today is English language learning across Ukraine because nowadays Ukraine is joining the European Union so it means the co-operation between member states. Among the many languages in the EU English is one of the official and working languages. During our research it has been stated that the pupils often are faced with different problems while learning English. But listening comprehension in English is more difficult and more important for learners to master. They can look up unknown vocabulary in dictionaries and use reference books when reading and writing a text in English, which is impossible when listening in English. In addition, the teaching of listening has attracted a greater level of interest in recent years than it did in the past. University entrance exams, school leaving and other examination now often include a listening component, acknowledging that listening skills are a core component of second language proficiency. There have been a number of attempts to define the listening skill in the literature. In this article we offer some definitions of listening of some foreign researchers. The goal of the article is to find out the reasons why listening is difficult and to give some ideas on how to tackle them. We have analyzed the problems of listening comprehension during English lessons at schools. The reasons why some pupils find listening in English language difficult vary just as much. There are some of them: they just don’t know the most important words; they are trying to understand every word; they don’t recognize the words that they know; they have problems with different accents; they have a mental block; they are distracted by background noise; they can’t tell the difference between the different voices; they can’t cope with not having images. It was proved that listening plays a crucial role in the communication process, in general and in language learning in particular. Nowadays we have a lot of opportunities to improve our language. Some important conclusions were made concerning the effectiveness of the improving of students’ listening comprehension. The main of them is the Internet. So, in this article we suggest some useful websites for English learners.
English Language Error Analysis of the Written Texts Produced by Ukrainian Learners: Data CollectionRecently, the studies of second language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors as they help to predict the difficulties involved in acquiring a second language. Thus, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by the students and pay special attention and devote emphasis to them. The research goals of the article are to define what error analysis is and how it is important in L2 teaching process, to state the significance of corpus studies in identifying of different types of errors and mistakes, to provide the results of error analysis of the corpus of written texts produced by Ukrainian learners. In this article, major types of errors in English as a second language for Ukrainian students are mentioned.
Po kilku dekadach stosowania terminu „globalizacja” na określenie zjawisk o charakterze przede wszystkim gospodarczym, finansowym i politycznym, warto przypomnieć sobie, że historia tego terminu sięga swoimi korzeniami do roku 1930, gdy został użyty przez Raupa dla opisu pewnej koncepcji edukacyjnej. Klasyk teorii globalizacji Anthony Giddens zdefiniował globalizację jako zintensyfikowanie stosunków społecznych o zasięgu ogólnoświatowym, łączących z sobą odległe miejsca w taki sposób, że zachodzące w nich wydarzenia lokalne kształtowane są pod wpływem wydarzeń rozgrywających się w odległości wielu kilometrów. Na pojawienie się zjawiska aneksji czy wręcz unicestwiania przez język angielski coraz to nowych obszarów dotychczas zajmowanych przez kulturę i język lokalny wskazywał już Swales, wybitny badacz gatunków naukowych języka angielskiego. Język angielski jako narzędzie globalizacji, przeczy Giddensowskiej definicji globalizacji - przynajmniej w sferze publikacji naukowych
EN
After a few decades of using the term “globalization” to define phenomena connected with economy, finances and politics, it is worth noting that the history of the term dates back to 1930 when it was first used by Raup to describe an educational concept. The renown theoretician of globalization Anthony Giddens has defined the phenomenon as intensification of social relations at a global scope which connect places in a way that the local events happening there are shaped under the influence of events happening many kilometers away. Swales – an eminent scholar analyzing the scientific fields of the English language – has already noticed that English has annexed or even annihilated many spheres of life which were hitherto occupied by local languages. English as a tool of globalization contradicts Giddens’s definition of globalization – at least in case of academic publications.
In this article we consider the method of contrastive analysis of башня (tower in Russian) lexeme, where the Russian language will be the source language, and the Czech and English languages will be the languages of comparison. In the study we will describe the comparison of the data of etymological dictionaries in three languages.The aim of this comparative analysis is discovering similarities and differences in the sub-systems of three languages.The central concept of contrastive linguistics is the notion of interlingual correspondences – units of different languages having similarities in composition of semes. Formally, there are three types of correspondences: linear correspondences, vector correspondences, lacunae. In this article we will consider one of them – fragmentary lacunarity.
The paper analyzes the functioning of selected English phonetic features and inspirations related to them in Polish punk rock, and interprets the results in a broader stylistic and sociolinguistic context. It is based on the thesis that pronunciation in singing is often connected to expressing specific, potentially evolving social or stylistic meanings, and in the case of Anglophone Polish punk rock these meanings depend on trends within the genre. In most analyzed cases, English pronunciation displays a lot of interference from Polish and an unstylized sound, while features associated with Cockney are quite rare.
PL
Głównym celem artykułu jest zbadanie sposobu funkcjonowania wybranych angielskich cech fonetycznych oraz inspiracji z nimi związanych w polskim punk rocku oraz usytuowanie wyników analizy w szerszym kontekście stylistycznym oraz socjolingwistycznym. Zgodnie z przyjętą tezą sposób wymowy w śpiewie może łączyć się z przekazaniem określonych – potencjalnie ewoluujących – znaczeń społecznych bądź stylistycznych, a w przypadku anglojęzycznego polskiego punk rocka znaczenia te zależne są od nurtów omawianego gatunku. Wymowa większości wykonawców charakteryzuje się wyraźnym wpływem języka polskiego i niewystylizowanym brzmieniem, a cechy cockneya kojarzone z klasycznym punkiem pojawiają się rzadko.
In the literature on foreign language teaching Franciszek Kuszel appears sporadically as the author of a Polish-English phrasebook entitled Rozmowy podręczne dla podróżujących do Londynu Polaków nieumiejących zupełnie Języka Angielskiego (1857). There are also other extant materials: “Książka Podręczna do Uczenia się Języka Angielskiego dla Uczniów Szkoły Główney w Warszawie” [1864], written for English instruction at the Szkoła Główna Warszawska and reproduced by means of the lithographic method, and “Dziennik czynności osobistych od dnia 25 września 1834”, a manuscript source of biographical information. This article has two main purposes: to sketch the biography of the author and take his textbook under a scrutiny.
PL
W literaturze glottodydaktycznej Franciszek Kuszel pojawia się sporadycznie jako autor rozmówek polsko-angielskich pt. Rozmowy podręczne dla podróżujących do Londynu Polaków nieumiejących zupełnie Języka Angielskiego (1857). Pozostawił po sobie także inne materiały: „Książkę Podręczną do Uczenia się Języka Angielskiego dla Uczniów Szkoły Główney w Warszawie” [1864] napisaną na potrzeby lektoratu angielskiego w Szkole Głównej Warszawskiej i powieloną metodą litograficzną, a także „Dziennik czynności osobistych od dnia 25 września 1834” – rękopiśmienne źródło informacji biograficznych. Artykuł stawia sobie dwa podstawowe cele: nakreślić biografię autora oraz dokonać analizy jego podręcznika.
Summing up, it should be emphasized that in the age of globalization it is impossible to omit the learning process internationalization, and there is no other way than to promote learning of foreign languages, especially English. Globalization does not give a choice, nor does it absolve anyone from the need to deepen knowledge and skills. Regardless of whether a given organization is a large university or a small non-public institution, each one must submit to this process in order to maintain the activities on the educational services market. Otherwise, such an institution will educate graduates doomed to unemployment which, in turn, will make it unpopular and sometimes worthless. Hence, university authorities should be open to inevitable changes and introduce innovative actions in this area.
Badanie miało na celu określenie wpływu korzystania z elektronicznego programu do nauki języka obcego opartego na grach edukacyjnych na rozwój wypowiedzi ustnych osób, które doświadczają trudności w nauce języka angielskiego podczas pandemii COVID-19. W badaniu zastosowano podejście eksperymentalne i zrealizowano je na próbie 84 uczniów podzielonej na grupę eksperymentalną (n = 42) i kontrolną (n = 42). Instrumentami badania były program szkoleniowy oraz test do oceny wypowiedzi ustnej. Badanie potwierdziło istnienie istotnej różnicy między grupą eksperymentalną a kontrolną w nabywaniu umiejętności wypowiadania się w języku angielskim po odbyciu programu szkoleniowego na korzyść grupy eksperymentalnej
EN
This study aimed at identifying the effect of using a language games-based electronic program on developing the oral expressions of people with learning difficulties in the English language during the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. The study used the experimental approach and implemented the program on a sample of 84 students divided into an experimental group (n = 42) and a control group (n = 42). The instruments of the study consisted of the training program and a test for the evaluation of oral expressive performance. The study found the existence of a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the acquisition of oral expression after receiving the training program in favor of the experimental group.
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