DATE: 03/06/2009 10:08:19 / MOOD: technology and esl

Nicenet, WebCT and Moodle were used to teach grammar to freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. The subjects were divided into three groups and were randomly assigned to the three online courses. The same questions, discussion threads, grammar websites, daily grammar lesson, exercises and quizzes were posted in the three online courses. Daily observations of student reactions, questions and discussions as well as responses to post-treatment questionnaires showed that Nicenet was the most popular.  

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:07:19 / MOOD: technology and esl

The present study reports results of an experiment in which the author and her students at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were connected with a professor and his students at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia shared an online grammar course using www.makkahelearning.net. The experiment proved to be a total failure. Factors contributing to students' inadequate participation in the online course, and hesitation to register and interact are discussed.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:06:26 / MOOD: second language acquisition

65 EFL freshman students were enrolled in a 4-hour writing course. Pretest results showed that the students could not put two words together. The posttest results showed a great improvement in writing ability. The students could write fluently and communicate easily. Spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors significantly decreased. Improvement was noted in essay length, neatness, mechanical correctness and style. Improvement was due to student factors and efficient task management factors. Although the students’ English was extremely poor, they were eager to learn. They accepted comments on their essays and were always ready to try again. Each week a variety of small writing tasks were practiced. For each task, the objective was stated, what to be performed was explained and illustrated by examples while students are attentive. Then the students practiced the task under supervision. Individual help was provided. Extension Activities were done in class within a time limit. At the end of the week, all the tasks were put together in writing a one-paragraph essay. Students were encouraged to write and not to worry about spelling, grammatical, punctuation or capitalization mistakes. I gave communicative feedback focusing on meaning and only errors related to tasks under study were highlighted. Feedback was provided on the presence and location of errors but no correct forms were provided. Self-editing and peer-editing were encouraged. Extra credit was given for good paragraphs. Quizzes were given every other week. They required completion of similar tasks or writing of an essay alternatively. Graded quizzes were returned with comments on strengths and weaknesses, and with words of encouragement. Answers were always discussed in class. A Powerpoint presentation will show samples of students’ essays, students’ views, and T-test results of the pre- and posttests, in addition to descriptive statistics of the quizzes to show the gradual improvement.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:05:35 / MOOD: second language acquisition

52 EFL students were enrolled in a two-hour Speaking III course. At first, the students were shy, refused to talk, could not generate ideas and produce correct sentences. Three months later, students’ speaking ability significantly improved. They could speak fluently using correct grammar and pronunciation and could easily generate ideas. Improvement was due to efficient task-based instruction. Each week a variety of small speaking tasks were practiced individually, in pairs and in small groups. The students were divided into groups in advance, had to prepare for the following week’s tasks at home. The task objective was stated. I made sure the students understood what they were supposed to do. At the beginning of every class session, a public speaking tip was given. Vocabulary items, a function, or a grammatical structure that might help them express themselves was written on the board and explained briefly. Then the students had to rearrange the chairs, and practice each task. I went around, sat with each group, listened, gave feedback, helped and encouraged. Activities were always performed within a time limit. The best group was given extra credit. Students were encouraged to speak and not to worry about mistakes. To help students speak in front of class, I would smile at them, assure them they could do it, prompt them with a sense of humor using questions or key words and praise performance. Quizzes were conducted in the language lab and required completion of several tasks. Students were handed the tasks on paper, given time to think and plan responses before recording them. I listened to the tapes, wrote comments on strengths and weaknesses and words of encouragement for each student. Samples of students’ oral presentations, students’ views, and T-test results of pre- and posttests, and descriptive statistics of the quizzes will be provided.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:04:46 / MOOD: teaching

Undergraduate students majoring in Islamic Studies at the women’s colleges in Saudi arabia need to take an English-for-Specific-Purposes (ESP) course each year of the B.A. program. The material for all four courses was specially developed in-house by a group of instructors at those colleges. An examination of the course material in general and reading texts in particular revealed many weaknesses. It was found that each textbook consists of 6 units, each of which consisting of a reading text, few vocabulary items and their dictionary definition and comprehension questions that students could answer by just matching the words of the question with those of the text. Vocabulary exercises required the students to fill in the blanks with the words that were defined or to look up the meanings in the dictionary. The reading passages lacked gradation in length and difficulty level and lacked variety in theme. They contained no context clues to develop the students’ ability to infer meaning of unknown words from context. English passages were simply a literal translation of Arabic sentences rather than connected discourse. The passages lacked cohesion, coherence and an organizational structure (enumeration, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, definition, sequencing, classification …etc). No devices signaling the text structure and no transitional words between sentences and paragraphs were used. Ideas are abstract, vague and have insufficient details. Stories had no theme, no setting, and no sequence of events. The passages lacked the stylistic features of English texts. Although the students are required to translate the same reading passages, translation skills and techniques were not mentioned. English for Islamic Studies courses need to be re-designed by a team of subject-matter, curriculum design and native English language experts. Discourse structure, stylistic features, register and specific reading and vocabulary skills should be taken into consideration in the course design.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:02:47 / MOOD: second language acquisition

EFL Freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation are required to take a writing course (4 hours per week) in addition to a grammar course (2 hours). The aim of the present study was to find out whether grammar instruction had an impact on the development of freshman students' writing ability. For this purpose, two groups of freshman students participated in the study. The experimental group received a combination of writing and grammar instruction, whereas the control group received writing instruction only. Both groups were taught (writing and/or grammar) by the author. Before instruction, pretest scores showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in writing ability. The control group outperformed the experimental group. Then, both groups received the same writing instruction using the same textbook. The book consists of 12 chapters, each of which has a theme and is divided into the following parts: Exploring ideas, building vocabulary, organizing ideas, developing cohesion and style, some grammatical points, writing the first draft, editing practice, writing the second draft and journal writing. Students in both groups completed all of the skills, exercises and writing tasks in each chapter and wrote the same one-paragraph essays. In addition, the experimental group studied the following grammatical structures: Parts of speech, prepositions, prepositional phrases, transitive and intransitive verbs, linking verbs, regular and irregular verbs, adverb placement, information, tag, negative and yes-no questions, negatives, regular and irregular plurals, count and non-count nouns, use of definite and indefinite articles, pronouns, subject-verb agreement, 8 tenses, modals, infinitives and gerunds and relative clauses, pronunciation of –ed, -s and -es at the end of verbs and nouns, spelling of –ing, -ed, -es. Posttest scores showed that the experimental group made higher gains than the control group. Using a combination of writing and grammar instruction by the same instructor was significantly more effective than receiving writing instruction only. Grammar instruction proved to be an important factor in enhancing the writing quality of unskilled, low ability EFL students and resulted in a significant improvement in their post-test (achievement test) scores. 

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 10:01:40 / MOOD: other

The goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to strategies that maximize use of available time and assist them in alleviating time management problems It will focus on time awareness, time wasters, getting the right things done, setting priorities, planning, handling interruptions, disorganization, dealing with procrastination, dealing with (or avoiding) crises, and controlling their life. After attending the workshop, participants should be able to do such things as: write a personal mission statement, state and follow their long- and short-term goals, analyze their use and misuse of time, identify time wasters, use daily records and logs, trace their patterns of procrastination, recorded daily activities for one week on a time use inventory, decompose tasks into sequentially, temporally ordered activities, prioritize tasks and classify activities according to importance and urgency, develop a realistic "to-do" list, use a calendar, wristwatch or clock; practice punctuality, use a time management system such as a planner or computer program, maintain an organized work environment (organize desk, office, briefcase, and computer files), schedule uninterrupted time to engage in important tasks, control paper work, visitors, meetings, and telephone calls, undertake energizing activities.

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 09:47:53 / MOOD: second language acquisition

The present study aimed at investigating ESL college students’ ability to comprehend news headlines, to identify the stylistic features of news headlines, to find out the features that are easy to identify, and those that are difficult to identify and to identify error causes. 68 ESL junior college students enrolled in a stylistics course took a test which consisted of a sample of news headlines. The subjects were asked to identify the stylistic features of those news headlines, give examples that illustrate the features they give, fill in missing words and substitute punctuation marks, infinitives and block language by their meanings. Analysis of the subjects’ correct responses showed that 75% of the subjects were able to identify initials in the news headlines, 72% could recognize surnames and infinitives used instead of the ‘future’, 51% could recognize places where articles are deleted, 49% could identify block language, 21% were able to identify passive structures used in the news headlines, 15% could recognize places were verb to be is deleted, and 6% could identify ellipsis. Analysis of the incorrect responses showed areas with which the subjects had syntactic, semantic, background knowledge problems. Recommendations for news headlines comprehension instruction will be given. 

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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DATE: 03/06/2009 09:46:55 / MOOD: second language acquisition

Almost every upper and middle class family (especially families with working mothers) in Saudi Arabia has a maid. Some affluent families even hire a nanny to raise the kids. Others hire a nanny who speaks English. Maids and/or nannies are recruited from non-Arabic speaking countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, or Ethiopia. They are recruited for two-year terms, but once a maid’s term is over, another maid, who might be from a different country, takes over. The maid live at home for 24 hours and over weekends and holidays The maid does not only do the house chores, but takes care of the kids since they are babies. Upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, many maids do not speak Arabic. They start to pick up the Arabic language from the family among whom they live, and when they speak it, their Arabic is far from perfect. Their Arabic language is characterized by incorrect pronunciation and sentence structure and limited vocabulary knowledge. This study aims at finding out what role foreign house maids play in Saudi small children’s acquisition of Arabic (L1), what influence the maid has on the children’s acquisition of Arabic pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. The study will try to find out the factors contributing to the negative influence of the maid’s language over the children’ acquisition of L1. To answer these questions, 300 mothers were surveyed. All the subjects have small children under the age of six in the family. It was found that 60% of the subjects are working mothers. 90% have a non-Arabic speaking maid, and 10% have an English-speaking maid. It was also found that most maids speak neither English nor Arabic when they arrive in Saudi Arabia. They pick up the Arabic language spoken at home by immersion. The maids learn to speak faulty Arabic in terms of pronunciation, sentence structure and grammatical forms such as plural formation, and use of feminine and masculine genders. They produce incomplete sentences and are unable to produce certain Arabic phonemes correctly. Their vocabulary knowledge is limited. Those who speak English, speak it with a non-native accent. Results of the surveys showed that in most cases, the maid has little influence over the child’s acquisition of Arabic, despite the fact that those children are raised by the foreign maid since they were babies and are emotionally attached to her. A small percentage of the children imitate the maid when they first start to learn Arabic at age 2 and 3. They are unable to produce Arabic sounds correctly, make mistakes in plural formation and gender. It seems that the maid’s influence depends on how much time the child spends with the maid, how much time the mother spends with the child, whether the child has siblings, and play mates. When the child goes to kindergarten, traces of foreign accent resulting from imitating the maid’s foreign Arabic accent and faulty use disappear, and the child is able to speak Arabic correctly and natively. 

Prof. Reima Al-jarf,King Saud University,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<a href="http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf">http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf</a>

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