Effects of affective variables and willingness to communicate on students’ English-speaking performance in Thailand

Recently, Willingness to Communicate (WTC) has been explored and proposed to be one of the key concepts for identifying when one decides to initiate communication in the target language. The attention, nonetheless, has been concentrated on how WTC interacts with other learners’ variables. This study, on the other hand, intends to offer empirical evidence on the direct roles of affective variables (self-confidence, anxiety, motivation, and grit) and WTC variables (WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and WTC in a digital setting) in Thai students’ English-speaking performance. The data were obtained from 35 undergraduate students (17.1% males; 82.9% females) using a survey questionnaire. Then, a speaking test was taken from an English Communication Skills course and was analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression. The results disclosed positive correlations among self-confidence, motivation, grit, WTC in a digital setting, WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and speaking performance, and negative correlations among self-confidence, anxiety, and grit. However, motivation was the only significant predictor of speaking performance. The findings offer some implications for English teachers in improving students’ English-speaking performance.

Research trends of blended language learning: A bibliometric synthesis of SSCI-indexed journal articles during 2000–2019

This study aims to synthesize research trends of blended language learning studies over the past two decades, from 2000 to 2019. Data were collected from the Web of Science, and a total of 60 SSCI-indexed journal articles were retrieved for bibliometric synthesis. Drawing on the revised technology-based learning model, participants, learning strategies, research methods, research foci, adopted technologies, and application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were addressed. The findings demonstrated that publications were increasing rapidly, and that most articles were published in computer-assisted language learning, educational technology, and applied linguistic journals. The most common target language was English as a foreign language, and the most common learners were college students. In most studies, technologies were mainly used for the purposes of practice or exercises. Mixed, quantitative, and qualitative methods were frequently adopted, with a particular eye on the experiment design, questionnaires, and other specific methods in the second decade. Productive language skills, along with autonomy, satisfaction, and motivation, were major research foci. Language management systems and computer and web-based applications were frequently adopted technologies. Findings of application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were summarized.

Teachers’ perceptions and the implementation of the adapted communicative approach in Libya

This study instigates the teachers’ perceptions towards the implementation of the adapted communicative approach to teach English language in Libyan high schools in the city of Khoms. The participants were six teachers of different gender-based high schools. The study followed a pure qualitative method to collect and analyze the date, and the data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire. The findings reveal that the majority of English language teachers in Libyan high schools in Khoms city have positively perceived the implementation of the communicative approach (CA) to teach English language in their high schools’ contexts. They agreed to the majority of the questionnaire’s items such as: the CA emphasizes the communication in the target language and emphasizes that the learners need meaningful communication. All the participants said that they modify the principles of the communicative approach to meet the students’ needs and goals and most of them have agreed that the allocated time is not enough to complete the lesson in the classroom. This study draws out the pedagogical implication that the implementation of the adapted CA to teach English language in high schools in Libya can be quite adaptable, especially when the teachers have to fulfil the students’ needs.

A Need for a Substantive Change in Tertiary EFL Education

As Saudi Arabia is increasing its international influence and educational collaboration at a global scale, promoting the importance of English language teaching and learning in basic and tertiary education has been more prioritized in the country. Diverse programs are offered in universities, incorporating foundation year programs and curricula, which have become a must for anyone passionate about his/her future, and a strategic necessity for any university that aims at preparing its graduates for their career life. This paper investigates the birth of one of the newest approaches in EFL curriculum design that tries to re-launch the link between labor markets and demands of academic requirements, global society, on the one hand, and the learners’ needs on the other hand, and questions the opinions of foundation year students who completed one academic year of the newly launched curriculum in an English Language Institute at a Saudi public university, data collection employed a large-scale survey (n = 2000) that purposefully explores the students’ opinion on the new curriculum. Results obtained from 371 respondents reveal students’ satisfaction toward a clear improvement in their language skills, specifically presentation, vocabulary, and writing, and joint agreement that the course was autonomy supportive. It was also significant that the course increased the students’ intrinsic motivation and appreciation of the challenges and inspiration this curriculum had given to them. This paper is an extended piece of knowledge for further research. It provides an illustration of students’ deep thoughts on their target language needs for policymakers and curriculum designers to consider.

MORPHOLOGICAL ASPECT IN TRANSLATING THERMODYNAMIC TERMINOLOGY

Several studies on translation have been carried out, namely on the problem of untranslation, translation of terms from various fields, and the formation of target language terms with spelling adjustments. One of them is the field of thermodynamics which is part of the field of Mechanical Engineering, which has many terms borrowed from Dutch and English. Therefore, the researchers are interested in investigating the morphological aspects of the translation of thermodynamic terms using the natural borrowing technique. This study used qualitative research methods. Researchers took terminology data from two books, namely The Fundamental of Engineering Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics. The results showed that the forms of borrowing that occurred were (1) borrowing by adjusting spelling and pronunciation adjustments; (2) borrowing with spelling adjustment without pronunciation adjustment; (3) borrowing without spelling adjustment, but with pronunciation adjustment; (4) adjustments to the spelling of prefixes and bound forms found 15 forms of adjustment; (5) suffix spelling adjustments found 20 forms of adjustment; and (6) a combination of translation and borrowing. In short, morphological aspects in translating thermodynamics terms are very important because they relate to the technique used.

INTERLANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF TURKISH SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: EXPLORING ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Language learners employ communication strategies (CSs) to avoid communication breakdowns in times of difficulty, and such strategies develop within strategic competence thanks to exposure to a target language. This research is designed as a developmental study aiming to investigate the possible effects of exposure to English as a foreign language on the use of CSs in the interlanguage of Turkish speakers of English. To attain this aim, we chose 20 Turkish learners of English from the beginner level, and they designated the topics they would speak and write about. Their oral and written performances on the topics were tested at the beginning prior to instruction, in the middle, and at the end of the academic year to observe whether CS usage altered over time. The findings revealed that participants resorted to different types of CSs in their speaking and writing tasks. The comparison of CS employment in each test showed that learners’ CS preferences, as well as L1 and L2-based CSs, changed over time in both speaking and writing. Therefore, it is concluded that exposure to the target language may have a significant effect on the preference of CSs. The results of this study are significant as they suggested that CSs in interlanguage evolves from L1-based to L2-based strategies. The findings of this study have important implications for teaching English as a foreign language in reference to the effects of language exposure on the use of CSs in both oral and written performances of L2 learners.

Machine Translation System Using Deep Learning for English to Urdu

Machine translation is an ongoing field of research from the last decades. The main aim of machine translation is to remove the language barrier. Earlier research in this field started with the direct word-to-word replacement of source language by the target language. Later on, with the advancement in computer and communication technology, there was a paradigm shift to data-driven models like statistical and neural machine translation approaches. In this paper, we have used a neural network-based deep learning technique for English to Urdu languages. Parallel corpus sizes of around 30923 sentences are used. The corpus contains sentences from English-Urdu parallel corpus, news, and sentences which are frequently used in day-to-day life. The corpus contains 542810 English tokens and 540924 Urdu tokens, and the proposed system is trained and tested using 70 : 30 criteria. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed system, several automatic evaluation metrics are used, and the model output is also compared with the output from Google Translator. The proposed model has an average BLEU score of 45.83.

Potential Changes in Saudi Students’ Motivations and Attitudes towards Learning English as a Foreign Language after Immersion in an L2 Learning Environment

This study traces potential changes in the motivation of Saudi students studying English as a second language (L2) in the UK. It investigates whether the beliefs and motivations of these students have changed during their learning experience, and identifies the pedagogical implications of such change for English teaching, not only to Saudi students in the UK but also to Saudi students enrolled in Saudi higher education institutions. It aims to identify the reasons behind changes in motivation as well as the impact these may have on students’ attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Data from questionnaires, interviews, and observations are used through three phases of the English academic programme. The study subjects are newly arrived Saudi students (three PhD students and 29 Master’s students) studying in four different universities in the UK under the fields of Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and Translation. The conceptual framework is based on Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System Theory and Dörnyei & Ushioda’s motivation and L2 self-framework. Changes in motivation are usually accompanied by changes in students’ classroom involvement, attitudes towards the target language, and positive or negative impacts on the students’ outcomes and language competencies. Similar to other types of learning, L2 learning cannot take place in a vacuum. The present study has various contributions to the field of SLA. First, it validates earlier studies about the issue of motivation in linguistics, attitudes towards language, and changes in one’s self-identity as an outcome of language development. Second, it serves as an addition to the body of knowledge pertaining to motivation and attitude of Saudi students towards English as L2 and the important role of culture in this process. Further, it serves as an important contribution to how Saudi students’ L2 acquisition is understood using Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System.

Song and motivation in language class Chanson et motivation en classe de langue

Songs are considered as an educational and a substantial dependable references used in teaching and learning, particularly the so - called foreign language learning that allows learners to adapt to the target language culture and to develop their language learning skills including: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking and writing. Consequently, it can be said that the Francophone songs with the musical richness and resonance specifically facilities French language learning skills for all levels of education and achieve short and long terms predetermined educational language learning goals. In fact, language learning through songs method does not only include the cultural, musical, and heritage content of the language but rather includes the entire rich linguistic features that enable to master social linguistic field. It exceeds topographical and political limits to attain different cultures and communities’ interference. Additionally, learning through songs and music method plays an important role in French language learning. It represents one of the French languages most significant and reliable cultural and vernacular language learning reference. Out of French language teaching experience in Iraq, it is obvious that through songs and music language learning method represents such a vital element in the learning process that facilitates and supports the classroom linguistic and educational activities. The present study considers the advantages of teaching songs in French as a foreign language learning method ( FLE ) that helps the acquisitions of the oral and written language learning skills. Résumé La chanson, présente bel et bien en force dans notre vie quotidienne. Elle est considérée comme un document authentique de qualité à exploiter dans l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues surtout dites secondaires ou étrangère surtout. Le présent article traite la question de l'exploitation de la chanson comme support éducatif en classe de FLE. Un usage qui ne se limite pas uniquement aux apports linguistiques mais qui renvoie aussi à des réalités de la (des) culture(s) de la francophonie. Dans l’enseignement de la langue étrangère, la chanson est considérée comme un moyen pédagogique qui permet aux apprenants de s’accommoder à la culture de la langue-cible afin de développer les quatre compétences langagières (The four skills), à savoir celles de ; la compréhension de l’oral, la compréhension de l’écrit, l’expression de l’oral et celle de l’écrit. On peut dire donc que la chanson francophone, avec sa richesse musicale et ses qualités dites ludiques où se côtoient plaisir et désir. Cet avantage procure aux apprenants de différents âges et de différents niveaux une réception fortement positive, de laquelle peut émerger une multitude de manières plausibles d’exploitation d’un tel support en classe de FLE. L'important, serait donc, l’atteinte des objectifs finaux prédéterminés à long ou à court terme. En effet, la richesse de l’apprentissage par la chanson dépasse le contenu culturel, le musical, le patrimonial pour enfermer entre ses entrailles une variété linguistique qui en fait un champ fertile d’investigation dans le domaine de la sociolinguistique. Or, elle constitue un bon messager, voire un bon étrier qui efface les frontières politico-topographique et unit les peuples francophones par le bon brassage des cultures, et ce en partant de l’idée maitresse suivante « No mans land ». Par conséquent, l’enseignement-apprentissage de/par la chanson joue un rôle colossal dans la classe de FLE et qu'il ne faut guère hésiter à l'exploiter, car il permet une connaissance adéquate de la langue et de la culture françaises ou ce qu’on peut appeler la lexiculture. Lors de notre expérience dans le domaine de l'enseignement-apprentissage de la langue française en Irak, nous avons constaté l'utilisation du support en question comme élément fondamentale qui permet le soutien des activités linguistiques et pédagogiques en classe de FLE. Dans cet article, nous tenterions de mettre en exergue les avantages de l’enseignement-apprentissage de/par la chanson en classe de FLE, voire ses impacts prétendument favorables de ce support et son exploitation pour une motivation dynamique qui permet aux apprenants d’améliorer leurs compétences langagières sur tous les plans, qu’ils soient oraux ou écrits.

Semantic relations in text and translation Die semantischen Relationen im Text und Übersetzung

Based on the German language department’s theoretical and practical aspects as well as educational programs, the present study discusses the semantic relations in text sentences and their role in the science of translation. Through clarifying the semantic relationship between the text sentence and the methods used to express a news item, a situation or an occurrence and through the statement of the multiple theoretical semantic structures of the text’s construction and interrelation, a translator can easily translate a text into the target language. It is known that language learners face multiple difficulties in writing and creating an integrated, coherent and intelligible text, and the reason for this is their lack of knowledge of semantic relations. Deutsch In dieser Forschungsarbeit gehen die folgenden theoretischen Ausführungen im Zusammenhang mit bestimmten didaktischen Bemerkungen, die im Laufe des Lehrprozesses aufgetreten sind, der Frage der semantischen Relationen in Satzperspektiven nach. Berücksichtigt wurde dabei überdies das Lehrprogramm in der irakischen Germanistikabteilung. Daher besteht das Hauptpostulat dieser wissenschaftlichen Abhandlung in dem Versuch, dieses sprachliche Phänomen im Übersetzen und dessen vielseitige Varianten darzulegen sowie dessen Anwendbarkeit in den Verhandlungen, im praktischen Leben und im Umgang mit den ausländischen Firmen etc. zu klären.