DATE: 03/06/2009 09:45:39 / MOOD: second language acquisition

The present study aimed at investigating ESL students’ ability to comprehend and identify emphatic structures in advertisements, to find out the emphatic features that are easy to identify, and those that are difficult to identify. 60 ESL junior college students enrolled in a stylistics course took a test which consisted of an advertisement. The subjects were asked to identify the emphatic features of that advertisement and give two examples that illustrate the feature they give. Analysis of the subjects’ correct responses showed that the emphatic structures that the subjects could identify are: balanced sentence structure (53%), repeating key words (53%), arranging ideas in the order of climax, i.e. order of importance with the strongest idea last (45%), using active voice (33%), changing sentence length abruptly (33%), placing important words at the end of the sentence (32%), using periodic sentences (30%), placing emphatic words after a colon or a dash (27.5%), putting a word or phrase out of its usual order (23%) and identifying intensifiers, extraposition, exclamatory sentences, using anticipatory ‘it’, and changing sentence types together (20%). The percentages given reflect the difficulty level of the different emphatic features of the advertisement, and areas with which they had comprehension difficulties. Causes of advertisement comprehension problems and recommendations for instructional techniques that would help enhance the students’ ability to identify and comprehend emphatic structures 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 09:44:18 / MOOD: technology and esl

E-mail messages from 190 students were analyzed for types of requests, academic needs, reasons for seeking help, communication strategies and cultural differences. The message content revealed no differences between Saudi, Arab and non-Arab students’, nor between male and female students’ requests. Differences were noted in communication strategies. Undergraduate students sought help with assignments and how to improve their English, whereas graduate students requested resources and help with thesis preparation. Students’ requests revealed many academic problems. Reasons for seeking help and recommendations for improving the educational setting are 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 09:43:27 / MOOD: second language acquisition

65 EFL freshman students were enrolled in their first writing course in college. Before instruction, they were pretested. Pretest results revealed many writing problems. Then, the students studied Interactions One. Each week, one chapter was covered and the students completed all of the skills, exercises and writing tasks in the chapter and wrote two one-paragraph essays. They were encouraged to write and not to worry about spelling, grammatical, punctuation or capitalization mistakes. While doing the exercises and writing the paragraphs, I monitored their work individually and provided individual help. I gave communicative feedback. Self-editing and peer-editing were encouraged. Extra credit was given for good paragraphs. The students were tested every other week. Quizzes were always graded, returned to the students with comments on strengths and weaknesses. Answers were always discussed in class. At the end of the semester, the students were posttest. Posttest essays showed a great improvement in their writing ability. Improvement was noted in the students’ assignments, in essay length, neatness, mechanical correctness and style. A detailed account of the factors that lead to improvement in writing English 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 09:42:05 / MOOD: technology and esl

Technology is not currently used in ESL classrooms at King Saud University. Therefore an attempt was made to use technology in ESL writing instruction from home, in addition to traditional classroom instruction. Subjects of the present study were two groups of freshman students. Before instruction, both groups were pre-tested. They wrote a paragraph. Results of the mean comparisons of the pre-test scores showed significant differences between both groups in their writing ability. The control group outperformed the experimental group. The experimental group had many writing problems. Then, both groups were exposed to the same traditional in-class writing instruction. They completed all the chapters and exercises in the textbook assigned by the department. In addition, the experimental group used an online course in which they wrote short paragraphs and posted stories and poems. They e-mailed each other and e-mailed the instructor, word-processed their paragraphs and checked their own spelling. They located information related to the themes covered in the book from sites like “Yahoo movies” and “WebMD”. The experimental group used the internet from home as it was inaccessible from campus. At the end of the semester, both groups were post-tested. Comparisons of the post-test mean scores of students’ essays showed significant differences between both groups. The experimental group outperformed the control group. Results show that in learning environments where technology is unavailable to ESL students and instructors, use of technology from home and even as a supplement to traditional classroom techniques helps motivate and enhance ESL students' writing skills.

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 09:40:43 / MOOD: technology and esl

Although multimedia labs, the internet and e-mail are being widely used in teaching ESL to students in the US, computer technology is not used at all in language classrooms at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT). Therefore, the present study investigates the barriers to internet integration in ESL college classrooms. Those include: lack of computer equipment and internet access, lack of computer literacy skills by faculty and students, lack of training programs offered to female students and female faculty, lack of funding, lack of network-based resources and courseware, no plan for technology integration, no technology-based curriculum, lack of a technical support staff, lack of administrative support and supervision, and negative attitudes of faculty. Three open-ended questionnaires were used to collect data from the students, administrators and faculty at COLT. Results indicated that both faculty and students have no internet access on campus. Instructors have no PC’S in their offices. There is no multimedia labs, no ESL instructional CD’s. The only computer lab available at COLT has only 20 PC’s. It is mainly used to introduce students to basics of ‘windows’ and word-processing in a computer course offered to students. Second, most instructors do not possess the necessary skills to use the internet in their classrooms. 50% of the instructors cannot use the computer at all, 25% use it for word processing only and 15% can use the internet. They mainly use it at home to find texts. Thirdly, it was found that 88% of the students own a computer. 49% have internet access from their homes and have an e-mail. However, 54% of the students use the computer in word processing, 29% use it for games and entertainment, 19% use educational CD’s but those are not related to ESL learning, 8% use it to find information, 7% use it to learn English, and 2% to check their spelling, in addition to other personal uses like drawing, making cards and photographs. Student internet uses were found to be unrelated to ESL study. They mainly use the internet for chatting, shopping, reading the news, sports, music, etc. e-mail uses are unrelated to ESL study as well. The students mainly use it to correspond with relative and friends and to place orders. It was found that no internet training programs are offered to faculty but some are offered to students. However, none of the students has joined them because of inconvenient scheduling. Some instructors do not feel comfortable using technology and others are misinformed. Some believe that the internet can only be used to find information but not in language teaching. Others believe that e-mail can be used for teaching letter-writing only. Some believe that they do not need the internet to teach ESL and ESL CD’s are more useful for language teaching than the internet. Recommendations for technology integration in ESL classrooms included a master technology integration plan, setting technology competencies and standards, planning a technology-based curriculum, network-based resources, funding, technical support, faculty development, training pre-service teachers, and presenting technology in small doses.

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 09:39:14 / MOOD: about language

The aim of the present study was to examine the amount of reading texts, reading exercises and reading skills covered by reading instructors in ESL college classrooms at each college level. Subjects of the present study consisted of 12 instructors (3 instructors per level) who taught reading in Fall 2000 and Spring 2001. Since students usually mark texts, do exercises and take notes on their textbooks, 3 reading textbooks per instructor were collected from students in levels 1-4. Each book was examined page by page. The number of units, number of reading selections, number of reading skills and number of reading exercises taught in each textbook were calculated. It was found that the typical instructor taught 50% of the reading selections in Interactions I and Interactions II, 33% of the reading selections in Mosaic I and 20% of the reading selections in Mosaic II. In Addition, the typical instructor taught 62% of the reading and vocabulary skills and 50% of the testing skills in Interactions I. In Interactions II, the typical instructor taught 50% of the reading skills, vocabulary, and testing and study skills. In Mosaic I, the typical instructor taught 33% of the reading skills, 40% of the vocabulary skills, 55% of the testing and study skills. In Mosaic II, the typical instructor taught 25% of the reading, vocabulary, testing and study skills. A detailed report of the findings will be given. Results will be discussed in the light of issues affecting student achievement in ESL such as the amount of time allocated to reading instruction and the relationship between the amount of material covered and reading achievement. 

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 09:29:06 / MOOD: second language acquisition

There are several factors that affect the learning of English by Saudi students. First, some examples of errors made by Saudi EFL students will be given. Similar examples of errors made by EFL students from different language backgrounds will be given to show that Saudi students’ errors are universal. Second, social, affective, personality, input and instructional factors that influence second language learning will be overviewed. Instructional factors seem to be the most important. Krashen, Jones, Zelinsky and Uspich found out that formal instruction is responsible for 25% of the variation in Michigan scores while years in English-speaking countries is responsible for 3.2% only. They concluded that proficiency in English is more closely related to amount of informal instruction. Therefore, finding out how Saudi students were taught English in high school will help understand students’ failure in EFL learning. Results of observations of 39 secondary EFL classrooms are reported. Descriptions of the place of English in the curriculum, professional competence of teachers, subject-matter competence of teachers, in-service training programs, supervisors, high school English curriculum, amount of instructional time, amount of teacher talk vs. student talk, decoding instruction, vocabulary instruction, text content instruction, questioning techniques, feedback techniques will be given. It was concluded that instruction at the lesson level in Saudi secondary schools seems to be insufficient, inadequate and ineffective. As a result, students do not seem to learn much English. 

Prof. Reima Al-jarf

http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf

 

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