Pub Date : 2019-12-12DOI: 10.4312/elope.16.2.77-90
Lisjeta Thaqi Jashari, Mateja Dagarin Fojkar
Despite the fact that English is taught as a foreign language in schools from an early age, students often face difficulties when it comes to the development of their writing skills. This paper aims at exploring teachers’ perceptions regarding the development of the writing skills of elementary and secondary school EFL learners. Altogether, 85 Kosovar teachers were included in the survey. Even though the teachers believe that writing is important, they do not give the same emphasis to developing it as to other skills. According to their responses, some common difficulties learners experience while writing are a lack of vocabulary, writing anxiety, lack of ideas, mother tongue interference, grammar difficulties, weak structure organization and poor spelling. The teachers suggest that these difficulties might stem from a lack of reading and writing practice, ineffective teaching methods and low motivation for writing. We recommend various actions, such as teacher development courses to help them acquire more effective strategies of teaching writing, increased writing practice in the classroom, and the use of different learning strategies to meet all students’ needs.
{"title":"Teachers’ Perceptions of Developing Writing Skills in the EFL Classroom","authors":"Lisjeta Thaqi Jashari, Mateja Dagarin Fojkar","doi":"10.4312/elope.16.2.77-90","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.16.2.77-90","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the fact that English is taught as a foreign language in schools from an early age, students often face difficulties when it comes to the development of their writing skills. This paper aims at exploring teachers’ perceptions regarding the development of the writing skills of elementary and secondary school EFL learners. Altogether, 85 Kosovar teachers were included in the survey. Even though the teachers believe that writing is important, they do not give the same emphasis to developing it as to other skills. According to their responses, some common difficulties learners experience while writing are a lack of vocabulary, writing anxiety, lack of ideas, mother tongue interference, grammar difficulties, weak structure organization and poor spelling. The teachers suggest that these difficulties might stem from a lack of reading and writing practice, ineffective teaching methods and low motivation for writing. We recommend various actions, such as teacher development courses to help them acquire more effective strategies of teaching writing, increased writing practice in the classroom, and the use of different learning strategies to meet all students’ needs.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"16 1","pages":"77-90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47722172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-12-04DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.33-48
Folasade Jimola, G. O. Ofodu
Diagnostic assessment is an indispensable aspect of pedagogy. Past research has shown that teachers’ perceptions and attitudes to diagnostic assessment could influence their classroom practices. This article discusses teachers’ perceptions of diagnostic assessment, reiterates the essence of diagnostic assessment in English language classrooms, explores teachers’ attitudes and utilization of diagnostic assessment techniques, and also investigates the factors influencing teachers’ knowledge of assessment practices. To achieve these objectives, an empirical study on English language teachers’ perceptions of diagnostic assessment, teachers’ attitudes and utilization of diagnostic assessment techniques and factors influencing teachers’ knowledge of assessment practices was conducted. The results show that the majority of English language teachers in the sample have inaccurate perceptions of the purpose of diagnostic assessment and also have negative attitudes to diagnostic assessment in classrooms. The results of the survey indicate that schooling, professional coursework and context are factors that influence ESL teachers’ classroom assessment practices.
{"title":"ESL Teachers and Diagnostic Assessment: Perceptions and Practices","authors":"Folasade Jimola, G. O. Ofodu","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.33-48","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.33-48","url":null,"abstract":"Diagnostic assessment is an indispensable aspect of pedagogy. Past research has shown that teachers’ perceptions and attitudes to diagnostic assessment could influence their classroom practices. This article discusses teachers’ perceptions of diagnostic assessment, reiterates the essence of diagnostic assessment in English language classrooms, explores teachers’ attitudes and utilization of diagnostic assessment techniques, and also investigates the factors influencing teachers’ knowledge of assessment practices. To achieve these objectives, an empirical study on English language teachers’ perceptions of diagnostic assessment, teachers’ attitudes and utilization of diagnostic assessment techniques and factors influencing teachers’ knowledge of assessment practices was conducted. The results show that the majority of English language teachers in the sample have inaccurate perceptions of the purpose of diagnostic assessment and also have negative attitudes to diagnostic assessment in classrooms. The results of the survey indicate that schooling, professional coursework and context are factors that influence ESL teachers’ classroom assessment practices.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73036818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-12-04DOI: 10.4312/elope.16.2.93-114
Sanja Škifić, A. Pintarić
The paper investigates how obesity as an aspect of physical appearance is represented in English and German. The existence of various expressions that refer to obesity leads to the assumption that both investigated languages rely on euphemisms and dysphemisms to talk about obesity. Using a corpus of different expressions from lexicographic sources, we analyse their descriptions and their classification as euphemisms in specialized and general dictionaries. Semantic phenomena that might be identified within such expressions were also taken into consideration. To investigate the usage of the identified euphemisms and dysphemisms, a questionnaire was administered among native speakers of English and German. The corpus was used to trace the space between euphemisms and dysphemisms in language use. The main goal was to identify the ways in which obesity is referred to in two different sociocultural contexts, and to establish the extent to which lexicographic identifications and descriptions of euphemisms overlap with native speakers’ perceptions and use of such items.
{"title":"Tracing the Space Between Euphemisms and Dysphemisms: The Case of Obesity in English and German","authors":"Sanja Škifić, A. Pintarić","doi":"10.4312/elope.16.2.93-114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.16.2.93-114","url":null,"abstract":"The paper investigates how obesity as an aspect of physical appearance is represented in English and German. The existence of various expressions that refer to obesity leads to the assumption that both investigated languages rely on euphemisms and dysphemisms to talk about obesity. Using a corpus of different expressions from lexicographic sources, we analyse their descriptions and their classification as euphemisms in specialized and general dictionaries. Semantic phenomena that might be identified within such expressions were also taken into consideration. To investigate the usage of the identified euphemisms and dysphemisms, a questionnaire was administered among native speakers of English and German. The corpus was used to trace the space between euphemisms and dysphemisms in language use. The main goal was to identify the ways in which obesity is referred to in two different sociocultural contexts, and to establish the extent to which lexicographic identifications and descriptions of euphemisms overlap with native speakers’ perceptions and use of such items.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73781769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-30DOI: 10.4312/elope.16.2.63-76
P. Romanowski
This paper aims to present a comparative study of the existing curricular Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) models as used by teachers in Polish lower- and upper-secondary schools in the system of education which ended in 2017 when the New Education Reform was implemented. The article reveals the details pertaining to general language education in Poland and bilingual classrooms focusing on CLIL. The main goal is to analyse which languages are most frequently employed in bilingual education as the medium of instruction, the school subjects whose content is imparted through the medium of a foreign language as well as the four major curricular models developed and implemented for the needs of bilingual provision in Poland.
{"title":"A Comparative Study of CLIL Trajectories in the Polish Education System","authors":"P. Romanowski","doi":"10.4312/elope.16.2.63-76","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.16.2.63-76","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to present a comparative study of the existing curricular Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) models as used by teachers in Polish lower- and upper-secondary schools in the system of education which ended in 2017 when the New Education Reform was implemented. The article reveals the details pertaining to general language education in Poland and bilingual classrooms focusing on CLIL. The main goal is to analyse which languages are most frequently employed in bilingual education as the medium of instruction, the school subjects whose content is imparted through the medium of a foreign language as well as the four major curricular models developed and implemented for the needs of bilingual provision in Poland.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83681362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-30DOI: 10.4312/elope.16.2.117-133
Nejc Rožman Ivančič
The article examines the portrayal of a woman of colour in the novel The Subterraneans (1958), and the portrayal of a Native American woman in the novel Tristessa (1960). The two works are representative examples within the opus of the American writer Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), and offer suitable starting points for the reinterpretation of his attitude towards women and non-white ethnicities. The novels reveal the ethnocentric, even colonizing attitude of the dominating male narrator in relation to the dominated and subjugated social groups. Although the treated works are considered Kerouac’s “female-centred novels” (Phelan Lyke 1991, v), this syntagm is problematized here by showing that the male narrator remains the true protagonist, focused essentially on his own perceptions of the non-white romantic subject, whereas the two female characters are (mere) objects for the protagonists’ self-discovery, life experience and psychological projection. In this sense, Kerouac’s consistent presentation of women as representatives of an identity of the exotic/Other reveals his nested gender and racial prejudice.
{"title":"The The Image of a Woman of Colour and Native American Woman in Two Kerouac Novels: A Double Otherness","authors":"Nejc Rožman Ivančič","doi":"10.4312/elope.16.2.117-133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.16.2.117-133","url":null,"abstract":"The article examines the portrayal of a woman of colour in the novel The Subterraneans (1958), and the portrayal of a Native American woman in the novel Tristessa (1960). The two works are representative examples within the opus of the American writer Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), and offer suitable starting points for the reinterpretation of his attitude towards women and non-white ethnicities. The novels reveal the ethnocentric, even colonizing attitude of the dominating male narrator in relation to the dominated and subjugated social groups. Although the treated works are considered Kerouac’s “female-centred novels” (Phelan Lyke 1991, v), this syntagm is problematized here by showing that the male narrator remains the true protagonist, focused essentially on his own perceptions of the non-white romantic subject, whereas the two female characters are (mere) objects for the protagonists’ self-discovery, life experience and psychological projection. In this sense, Kerouac’s consistent presentation of women as representatives of an identity of the exotic/Other reveals his nested gender and racial prejudice.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"211 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77052152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-11-30DOI: 10.4312/elope.16.2.49-61
Polona Lilić, Silva Bratož
The main aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of using games in teaching English grammar to young learners. Today there is an overall agreement among researchers in foreign language teaching and language acquisition that grammar should be taught at all levels of instruction, including to young learners, bearing in mind that it should be considered in the context of meaningful communication. The paper first presents a review of the literature in the area of grammar teaching and using games for language teaching purposes. The second part presents the results of an experimental study aimed at testing the hypothesis that activities based on grammar games are a more efficient strategy for teaching grammar than more traditional ELT activities. The results of the experiment prove the efficacy of using grammar games in teaching grammar to young learners.
{"title":"The Effectiveness of Using Games for Developing Young Learners’ Grammar Competence","authors":"Polona Lilić, Silva Bratož","doi":"10.4312/elope.16.2.49-61","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.16.2.49-61","url":null,"abstract":"The main aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of using games in teaching English grammar to young learners. Today there is an overall agreement among researchers in foreign language teaching and language acquisition that grammar should be taught at all levels of instruction, including to young learners, bearing in mind that it should be considered in the context of meaningful communication. The paper first presents a review of the literature in the area of grammar teaching and using games for language teaching purposes. The second part presents the results of an experimental study aimed at testing the hypothesis that activities based on grammar games are a more efficient strategy for teaching grammar than more traditional ELT activities. The results of the experiment prove the efficacy of using grammar games in teaching grammar to young learners.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"16 1","pages":"49-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45693911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-09DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.15-31
J. Filipović, Alenka Mikulec, I. Cindrić
Speaking is a language skill that dominates the notion of communicative language competence. Language teachers, especially early starters’ pre-service teachers, should undergo very intensive programmes of pronunciation practice as they will in many cases present the only models for their learners to imitate (Vilke 1993). To develop such fluency in speaking and propositional accuracy, students and prospective teachers should not only use but also be aware of a range of speaking strategies. This study examines pre-service EFL teachers’ perceived use of speaking strategies, as defined in the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (Nakatani 2006). Since previous studies have identified various factors associated with learners' strategy use, we focused on determining whether the participants’ perceived strategy use is related to their EFL and speaking proficiency and their preference for engaging in speaking activities in their EFL classes. The results confirmed rather high strategy use, but the relation between the tested variables was only partially confirmed.
{"title":"The Use of Speaking Strategies by Pre-Service EFL Teachers","authors":"J. Filipović, Alenka Mikulec, I. Cindrić","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.15-31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.16.2.15-31","url":null,"abstract":"Speaking is a language skill that dominates the notion of communicative language competence. Language teachers, especially early starters’ pre-service teachers, should undergo very intensive programmes of pronunciation practice as they will in many cases present the only models for their learners to imitate (Vilke 1993). To develop such fluency in speaking and propositional accuracy, students and prospective teachers should not only use but also be aware of a range of speaking strategies. This study examines pre-service EFL teachers’ perceived use of speaking strategies, as defined in the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (Nakatani 2006). Since previous studies have identified various factors associated with learners' strategy use, we focused on determining whether the participants’ perceived strategy use is related to their EFL and speaking proficiency and their preference for engaging in speaking activities in their EFL classes. The results confirmed rather high strategy use, but the relation between the tested variables was only partially confirmed.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86840345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Introduction to the special issue of ELOPE (Vol. 16, No. 1) "The Sounds of English".
《私奔》(第16卷第1期)特刊简介《英语之声》。
{"title":"The Sounds of English: Introduction","authors":"Ivo Fabijanić, Andrej Stopar","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.9-11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.9-11","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction to the special issue of ELOPE (Vol. 16, No. 1) \"The Sounds of English\".","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81860856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-30DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.47-76
Saša Jošt, Andrej Stopar
The study focuses on assessing the state of foreign phoneme acquisition by foreign language (FL) students at the end of their undergraduate studies. To determine whether they prioritise vowels over consonants, a perception experiment was devised that focuses on the phonemes in Standard Slovene and General British reported as most problematic for Slovene learners of English. Thirty-three Slovene students of English were tested, along with a positive and a negative control group (CG). A set of stimuli was tested using the AX discrimination method; the participants listened to 60 phonemic contrasts, played in a pseudo-randomised order. The results foregrounded the most problematic phonemes which act as perceptual magnets. Analysis shows that the students can discriminate foreign phonemes well, and that they consistently perform better in discriminating vocalic contrasts.
{"title":"Perception of Foreign Phonemes: The Case of Slovene Students of English","authors":"Saša Jošt, Andrej Stopar","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.47-76","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.47-76","url":null,"abstract":"The study focuses on assessing the state of foreign phoneme acquisition by foreign language (FL) students at the end of their undergraduate studies. To determine whether they prioritise vowels over consonants, a perception experiment was devised that focuses on the phonemes in Standard Slovene and General British reported as most problematic for Slovene learners of English. Thirty-three Slovene students of English were tested, along with a positive and a negative control group (CG). A set of stimuli was tested using the AX discrimination method; the participants listened to 60 phonemic contrasts, played in a pseudo-randomised order. The results foregrounded the most problematic phonemes which act as perceptual magnets. Analysis shows that the students can discriminate foreign phonemes well, and that they consistently perform better in discriminating vocalic contrasts.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91151453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-30DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.145-157
Serkan Şen
The paper presents a contrastive analysis of Turkish and English with respect to their vowel systems and orthography. The author then focuses on effective ways to teach four General British (GB) vowels, /i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /u:/, to twenty Turkish university students of English as a Foreign Language. The paper presents a practical approach to teaching the perception and production of the four vowels through a set of classroom activities. As practice shows, Turkish students experience difficulties in the recognition and pronunciation of the observed vowels, which can be mitigated using the described activities.
{"title":"Helping Turkish EFL Learners with the Pronunciation of Four General British Vowels","authors":"Serkan Şen","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.145-157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.16.1.145-157","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents a contrastive analysis of Turkish and English with respect to their vowel systems and orthography. The author then focuses on effective ways to teach four General British (GB) vowels, /i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, and /u:/, to twenty Turkish university students of English as a Foreign Language. The paper presents a practical approach to teaching the perception and production of the four vowels through a set of classroom activities. As practice shows, Turkish students experience difficulties in the recognition and pronunciation of the observed vowels, which can be mitigated using the described activities.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74471993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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