Developing EFL Students Research Articles

Perspectives of Kurdish EFL University Students’ Towards the Importance and Participation in English Language Extracurricular Activities

English language extracurricular activities are helpful strategies in developing EFL students’ English language proficiency and skills. This study aims to examine perceptions of Kurdish EFL university students about the roles and importance of participation in these activities for improving their English language proficiency and skills. This study is experimental and used survey questionnaires to take the participants’ perspectives towards the importance of practicing and participation in English extracurricular activities, and to detect the participation frequency extent in these activities. The participants were 60 students in English language department/faculty of education from Charmo University. In addition, the data were analyzed via (SPSS) and weighted-mean. The findings in this study revealed that majority of the students had positive attitudes towards the importance of English extracurricular activities in improving their English language proficiency and skills. It was concluded that Kurdish EFL students could enhance their English language proficiency and skills through these activities outside their formal in-class curriculum.

The impact of mobile-assisted project-based learning on developing EFL students' speaking skills

Combining mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) with project-based learning (PBL) might be the potential framework for enhancing EFL learners' speaking skills. However, only a few studies have scrutinised the impact of modern technologies on project work. More importantly, investigating how MALL, as a new field within ICT with unique pedagogical affordances, and PBL can enhance learners' speaking skills is still lacking in the literature. Accordingly, this study examines how integrating MALL through mobile phones and PBL, defined as mobile-assisted project-based learning or mobile-assisted projects, improves Moroccan secondary school students’ speaking performance. A true experimental study was conducted with 91 students assigned randomly to one experimental group and two control groups. The experimental group received instruction through mobile-assisted projects over one semester. In contrast, participants in the first control group taught speaking through project-based learning, and participants in the second control group received traditional teaching. Two instruments were employed to collect data: a speaking pre- and post-test to evaluate the three groups’ oral proficiency and a 5-Likert scale survey to detect the experimental group participants’ experience and attitudes toward the implementation. Based on independent sample t tests and paired sample t tests (SPSS-26), it was found that instruction through mobile-assisted projects was considerably more effective than project-based learning and conventional teaching in enhancing learners’ overall speaking performance and sub-skills: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Further, the results of the attitude post-questionnaire demonstrated a very high positive perception of the participants toward the implementation. As a result, these findings confirm the pedagogical role of combining MALL with PBL as an innovative mode of instruction in enhancing EFL learners’ speaking performance.

The Impact of Collaborative Instruction on Enhancing EFL Learners' Writing Proficiency

Writing is an important communicative language skill. It is an activity that requires a mental effort to “think out” the sentences and the ways of joining them to be meaningful and communicative. The present study was set up to the effectiveness of collaborative instruction on developing EFL students’ writing ability and also to delve into their attitudes towards it. For this purpose, 30 EFL students(18-25) studying at Gelisim University in Turkey were chosen by quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test, treatment, and post-test design using intact EFL classrooms. The obtained data was analyzed using the T-test. The results of the data analysis indicated that there was a positive and significant impact on the development of learners’ academic writing skills. Therefore the importance of writing in international communication and the complexity of this skill necessitate the application of appropriate teaching and learning strategies and approaches.

Effect of WhatsApp-based Tasks on Developing EFL Students’ Writing Skills

Effect of WhatsApp-based Tasks on Developing EFL Students’ Writing Skills

Developing EFL students' writing skills through a genre-based strategy

Developing EFL students' writing skills through a genre-based strategy

Developing EFL Students’ Multimodal Communicative Competence Through Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers: A Teaching Proposal

This paper focuses on integrating multimodal communication into the English-as-a-foreign-language classroom to enhance the development of students’ multimodal communicative competence, multiliteracies, and 21st-century skills. To do so, I compiled a corpus of authentic materials from Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers in Julia Quinn’s novel The Viscount Who Loved Me (2000), her appearances as narrator in the Netflix series Bridgerton (2022), and some tweets posted by @Bridgerton. This corpus was used to plan and design a game-based teaching proposal. Finally, the paper offers a critical analysis and suggests how this proposal can feasibly contribute to fostering students’ multimodal communicative competence.

The Effect of Using Duolingo on Developing EFL Students' Vocabulary and their Attitudes toward it

The Effect of Using Duolingo on Developing EFL Students' Vocabulary and their Attitudes toward it

Implementing the Process Writing Approach to Teach Paragraph Writing at Birzeit University

The Process Writing Approach focuses on the process of writing rather than the product. The purpose of the research was to explore the effectiveness of the Process Writing Approach in developing EFL students’ paragraph writing skill at Birzeit University/ Palestine. After reviewing previous literature on the topic, the researcher decided to utilize this approach in intermediate English (1201) in the first semester 2021/2022. Participants were randomly placed in an experimental group and a control group. A pre/posttest quasi-experimental approach was employed. Experimental procedures of teaching paragraphs lasted 8 weeks, and paragraphs were evaluated at the beginning and the end of the study. The data obtained from the pre/post writing tests were analyzed descriptively by running a t-test to calculate the differences between the mean scores of the two groups. The post-test findings revealed statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group. Accordingly, employing the Process Writing Approach proved to be extremely helpful in developing paragraph writing of EFL students. The study recommended adopting the same approach to develop intermediate-level students' writing and utilizing it in teaching essays and various genres as well.

The Role of Intercultural Dimension in Developing EFL Students’ Negotiation of Meaning in Salahaddin University-Erbil

The recognition of the intercultural dimension as a key component in language learning and teaching has been one of the most significant changes in the last few decades. The nature of the experience of teaching and learning languages has significantly changed as a result of this transition. This quantitative study presents the results of an investigation of the role of the intercultural dimension in developing EFL students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and negotiation of meaning at Salahaddin University-Erbil (SUE). The aim of the study is to find out teachers’ and students’ perceptions about the intercultural dimension in language teaching and to discover the role of the intercultural dimension in developing students’ negotiation of meaning. That is to say, to what extent does being aware of other cultures, especially the target culture develop students’ knowledge, skills, awareness and attitude to effectively and meaningfully negotiate? This study attempts to find out whether EFL teachers in SUE integrate culture into classes or not. For the purpose of data collection, a total of 148 EFL students and 30 EFL teachers in the College of Education, College of Languages, and College of Basic Education at Salahaddin University-Erbil were selected as the study participants. Instruments such as teachers’ and students’ questionnaires were used to collect data from the participants. The result of the study revealed students’ and teachers’ positive perceptions towards the intercultural dimension of language teaching. Also, the findings confirmed that the intercultural dimension in language teaching develops students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness of students’ own culture and others which are fundamental for students to negotiate meaningfully and effectively with speakers of other cultures. The result also revealed that despite teachers’ positive attitude towards the intercultural dimension in language teaching they do not fully integrate culture into their classes due to the shortage of time and being obliged to follow and finish the curriculum

Heutagogical-based ICALL environment

The use of Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) in foreign language learning holds great promises, but the identification of rigorous design principles to develop students’ capability through practical learning design are still insufficient. As capability concerns how people use their competencies in the unknown rather than in familiar situations, ensuring students' capability development becomes crucial in today’s complex, dynamic, and rapidly changing system of modern society. One critical question to firstly answer regarding the numerous variety and available options of ICALL applications is what and how to choose appropriate and relevant ICALL applications which would effectively enhance students’ capability. This paper proposes a framework for the intervention design of the ICALL learning environment to develop EFL students’ capability based on the pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy continuum and the authentic learning framework.

Distance learning in developing EFL students’ attitudes during post-pandemic: Effectiveness and barriers

The objectives of this study were to investigate what the students thought about the effectiveness of distance learning in developing attitudes and the barriers that came after the pandemic. This research was conducted using the qualitative research method. Forty EFL students from a senior high school in Medan took part in this study, twelve statements on questionnaires with the options strongly agreed, agreed, neutral, disagreed, and strongly disagree, as well as a semi-structured interview with four students who volunteered to participate, were used to gather the data. The findings indicated that the students have a positive attitude toward the effectiveness of distance learning in ELT classrooms. Besides the effectiveness, it was found that there were some barriers to the utilization of distance learning in the case of attitudes such as students’ lack of preparation (doing other activities during learning), lack of concentration (asleep), and lack of dress etiquette (not neat).

The Role of Process Approach in Developing EFL Students’ Writing Composition

The Role of Process Approach in Developing EFL Students’ Writing Composition

Innovative Pedagogies: The Impact of Interactive Learning on EFL Students’ Attitudes and Individualized Learning Opportunities in HE

The sudden transition from a face-to-face learning environment into a flipped classroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the education process (Fanounna, 2021). This study aims to examine the impact of adopting innovative pedagogies and interactive learning on developing EFL students’ attitudes toward learning the English language and to investigate how students feel about the effectiveness of interactive learning in developing individualized learning and a good learning process. In addition, the study aims to identify the most common challenges, that students face when using educational technology. To achieve the purposes of this study, the researcher developed a 5 Likert scale questionnaire consisting of three parts. The validity and the reliability of this instrument were tested and assured. The selected sample consisted of 112 freshman students distributed randomly in the two available sections at the Nablus branch of Al-Quds Open University during the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023. These two sections were randomly distributed into two groups, control and experimental. Therefore, the quasi-experimental method was used. The results of the study revealed that the interactive teaching/learning method had positively influenced students’ attitudes towards the English language. In addition, the results showed that the use of educational technologies offers a better opportunity to support individualized learning processes. Moreover, the results of the study revealed the most common difficulties and challenges associated with adopting interactive learning. Finally, the study recommended developing and including more interactive content and adopting new methodologies that focus on boosting language proficiency in HE in Palestine.

The Effect of a Podcast Program on Developing EFL Students’ Inferential Listening Comprehension Skills at the Faculty of Specific Education

The Effect of a Podcast Program on Developing EFL Students’ Inferential Listening Comprehension Skills at the Faculty of Specific Education

Situated Learning Theory: The Application of Grammatical Structure (Gerunds and Infinitives) in Developing EFL Students’ Cover Letters

Focusing on integrating teaching and learning grammatical structures in real actions and practices has been critical and one of the cornerstones in the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) domain. This paper emphasizes exposing EFL learners to actual tasks and opportunities they can benefit from in their future careers, along with understanding the meanings and functions of gerunds and infinitives. The situated learning theory was used to frame the current study on EFL students taking the grammar 1 course. The number of students was 60, but the study sample was seven students, which selected randomly. Students were guided to use gerunds and infinitives to develop a cover letter for one of the agencies they selected rather than apply those rules to artificial tasks. The sampled data of the qualitative research was used to analyze students’ cover letters by investigating two main concepts. First, their use of gerunds and infinitives; second, the elements of writing professional cover letters. The findings showed students’ accurate usage of gerunds and infinitives in different phrases, such as opening, closing, and body paragraphs, to present their educational background and experiences. Thus, the findings showed that the cover letters that have been written by the participants were not the best, but they achieved the general guidelines of creating cover letters and applied the targeted rules. EFL teachers are recommended to enhance their students with variety of authentic tasks that integrate the use of grammatical structures and the practice of using these structurers in real tasks.

Importance of Role-plays to develop EFL students speaking skills. Their role in language learning

Importance of Role-plays to develop EFL students speaking skills. Their role in language learning

Developing EFL Students’ Writing Ability Through Contextual Teaching and Learning (A Classroom Action Research Study)

Writing ability is an ability that refers to the notion of knowledge and understanding of writing. Judging from language skills, writing is an active productive activity, namely the activity of producing language and writing activity is also a form of realization of abilities and skills in the most recent language mastered by language learners after listening, speaking, and reading skills. Seeing the importance of this writing skill, the purpose of this study is to see the effectiveness of the CLT method in improving students' descriptive text writing skills. In its application, the researcher used CAR. In this study there were 20 students of SMA PGRI Kalabahi in the academic year 2022/2023. The data of this study were obtained from students' writing tests. As a result of the research, the CLT method has a significant impact on students' writing ability. In addition, the supporting factors of learning success include the use of props to write descriptive text and the teacher's proficiency in applying the contextual approach. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factors were students' lack of knowledge about descriptive text, their lack of ability and enthusiasm in stringing words to create descriptive text, students' low interest in descriptive text writing activities, as well as students' enthusiasm and unsupportive play environment. The application of contextual approach was able to develop students' descriptive text writing ability seen from the results of students' descriptive text writing, students' interest and response in following the learning of descriptive text writing by using contextual teaching and learning method.

A Program Based on Interactive Student Response Systems to Develop EFL Students' E-Critical Reading Comprehension Skills at the Faculty of Specific Education.

A Program Based on Interactive Student Response Systems to Develop EFL Students' E-Critical Reading Comprehension Skills at the Faculty of Specific Education.

Effectiveness of cooperative grouping in developing reading skills of university level EFL learners

Background. Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is an instructional method in which students work together in a cooperative framework, jointly construct a model of text and come to its potential meaning through discussions.
 Purpose. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group research design was used to examine the effects of cooperative grouping within the framework of CSR, with the aim of determining whether cooperative grouping is effective in developing EFL students’ reading skills.
 Method. The response variables included the students’ scores on questions testing Vocabulary, Factual Information, Prose Summary, Sentence Simplification, Reference Question and Insert text, whereas the explanatory variable was group membership (+/- cooperative), measured across three testing times (the beginning, middle and the end of the experimental intervention).
 Results. The results indicate that the students exposed to CSR within cooperative groups significantly developed those reading skills which focus on the comprehension of global information – prose summary, insert text and reference question. A possible explanation is that, in order to answer these questions, readers must approach the text in a holistic manner and focus on its main ideas, which seems to be facilitated by discussions in heterogeneous teams and negotiations of meaning resulting from those discussions.
 Conclusion. The main pedagogical implication of the results concerns the need for introducing cooperative grouping as an alternative to a typical university-level foreign language classroom, allowing teachers to organize an effective, interactive context for reading academic texts in English.

The Role of Teachers' Motivation in Developing EFL Students' Speaking Skill at University of Salahaddin

This study aims to investigate the role of motivated EFL teachers on developing students' speaking skill and boosting their confidence to speak in English at two colleges of Salahaddin University (Viz. College of Basic Education and College of Languages). To do so, a quantitative approach is adopted in the study. To find out the effect of teacher motivation on improving students' speaking skill, a survey questionnaire is distributed to 87 students. The results show that motivated teachers improve students' speaking skill since they give feedback on correct pronunciation of words, correct use of grammatical tenses and the use of appropriate vocabularies. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that motivated teachers boost students' confidence to speak in English in class since they use praising words to encourage students to speak in English, build a good rapport with them, use innovative methods of teaching, and make sure nobody laughs when students make mistakes. The findings will improve all the EFL teachers who would like to know how important teacher motivation is in improving students' speaking skill and building their confidence.