English Language Academic Performance Research Articles

Online Learning Impacts on General Foundation Program (GFP) Students` English Language Academic Performance during the Covid-19

This paper aims to investigate the potential effect of the Online Learning (OL) mode on Omani General Foundation Programs (GFP) students` English language skills performance. Numeric data related to the learning achievement of the GFP students (tests and assignment scores) was collected to explore the hypothetical differences between the two modes of learning. Five students were selected randomly to conduct the focused group interview. The difference in favour of any mode of learning is considered as a sign of the effectiveness of that model. Independent Samples t-test was used to analyze the data and the study found that although emergent unplanned strategies and policies to employ online learning in the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS), there is a statistically significant difference between the English language achievement of the GFP students who studied through OL was higher than those who had studied Face-to-Face (F2F) before the Covid-19 outbreak. As the difference was in favor of the OL group and statistically significant (p=.002 at alpha=.05 level), the study concluded that OL students appear to have outperformed their F2F counterparts and that, based on these findings, OL is an effective method of teaching/learning. The study offers a discussion of these findings.

Class-home Connection Using Communication Technology and its Impact on Anxiety Reduction and Academic Performance

This study tries to shed light on the importance of using communication technology in class-home connection, where the two-way communication that requires electronic interactive dialogue between teachers and parents are used, and how this communication may enhance students’ English language academic performance and help in reducing their classroom anxiety. The sample of the study consists of thirty EFL secondary school students with their parents. Two instruments were used to collect data; structured interview with parents, observation checklists to measure students’ anxiety, in addition to use students’ academic performance to determine their level of achievement in English. The results show that parents have positive attitudes towards using communication technology in class-home connection. It further demonstrates that students’ level of anxiety was reduced notably after applying the experiment, when the parents connect with the teacher daily, in addition to palpable improvement in students’ academic performance in English language.