University English Language Research Articles

Exploring the English language teachers’ perceptions of plagiarism: The case of Algerian Universities

Academic dishonesty is an alarming issue in higher education which spreads increasingly into the academic discourse community. As such, the present study is concerned with the exploration of university English language teachers’ perceptions towards what might most bring about plagiarism among their students. The study attempted to figure out, through the teachers’ academic experiences regarding plagiarism, the main reasons behind students’ inclination to approach this issue at Algerian Universities. This piece of research helps to awake both the teachers and students’ vigilance in response to plagiarism as one of the most alarming acts of academic dishonesty, and, consequently, to diminish this academic corruption. To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher used an English language teachers' questionnaire adapted from a study conducted by Rezanejad & Rezaei (2013). A sample of eighty university English language teachers from Saida University and other Algerian universities were selected to respond to the questionnaire. However, only 36 copies of the questionnaire were filled out and returned. The results of the present research indicated that Algerian university English teachers believe that their students had different reasons for plagiarism but they mostly plagiarize because of their bad command of the language and easiness of plagiarism.

Assessment planning within the context of university English language teaching (ELT) in China

Teacher assessment literacy (AL) is a concern for both educational assessment and teacher education research. As part of teacher AL, teacher competency of assessment planning has remained underexplored. To address this gap, this study explored how a group of 20 contest-winning university English teachers in China planned for assessment through qualitative analyses of their lesson plans and follow-up teacher interviews. The findings show that: (1) lesson plans include assessment-related components such as teaching objectives, student background, instruction-embedded assessment, and after-class assessment tasks; (2) their assessment planning is characterized by a clear understanding of learning goals, but an absence of rubrics and exemplars for performance assessments, over-reliance on groups as target of assessment, and inconsistencies between learning objectives and assessment tasks; and (3) their assessment planning was mainly intuitive and instruction-oriented. This paper concludes with a working model of assessment planning, and discusses a future research agenda for assessment planning.

Incorporating Corpus into the Analysis of College English Language Learners’ Written Competence in China

Incorporating Corpus into the Analysis of College English Language Learners’ Written Competence in China

English for Medical Purposes for Saudi Medical and Health Professionals

This study explored the English language needs of 156 Saudi fellowship doctors and students of medical majors who are enrolled at medical and training programs in Australian hospitals and universities. Data were collected via a questionnaire adopted from a previous study. Participants’ responses showed the most frequently used language sub-skills were those sub-skills they considered highly important. Results emphasize the findings of previous studies that learners usually attach high importance to any skills that they use frequently to help them achieve the utmost aim of improving their language abilities. In addition, the study findings suggest current college English language courses for medical majors need to focus more on improving language-related aspects like fluency, understanding, accuracy, and structure. Such changes are necessary to prepare doctors and medical professionals for work in medical jobs that depend on heavy usage of the English language and also improving communicative competence aspects to ensure smooth cultural interaction with co-workers from all around the world. The study concludes by pointing that there is a critical need to restructure English for medical purposes programs in Saudi Arabia to make better course design, content, and materials responsive to target language learners’ own future goals. Keywords: Saudi; English language skills; Needs analysis (NA); English for specific purposes (ESP); English for medical purposes (EMP)

Barriers Affecting Successful Integration of ICT in Moroccan Universities

The implementation of technology in classrooms affords educators more opportunities to work better in their lessons. However, there are numerous distinctive barriers that might prevent teachers from making use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in their teaching practices. Admittedly, studying the obstacles to the integration of technology in schools would be an important step in developing the quality of teaching. The primary objective of this study is to discover the barriers that stop university language teachers from using ICT in teaching. In this study the questionnaire is employed as data collection instrument. The questionnaire addresses only university English language teachers. Forty-six university English language teachers are chosen from two universities: Moulay Ismail University Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Meknes and Sidi Mohamed Ben AbdellahDahr – El Mahraz – Fes as a case study. So as to analyze the data from the questionnaire, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19 is employed. The research findings reveal that Moroccan university English language teachers face multiple barriers such as large classes, lack of computers, lack of Internet and insufficient technical support that prevent them from using ICT in their teaching practices.

The New Innovative Technologies and EFL Classes

Information and communication technology can be considered as a powerful tool which provides us with new views on education. Being aware of the benefits of technology in teaching will surly assist teachers, administers and parents cultivate a positive attitude toward ICT.In this research the questionnaire is used as data collection instrument. The questionnaire addresses only university English language teachers. Forty six university English language teachers are chosen from two universities: Moulay Ismail University Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Meknes and Sidi Mohamed Ben AbdellahDahr – El Mahraz – Fes as a case study. So as to analyze the data from the questionnaire, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19 is employed. The research findings reveal that Moroccan university English language teachers regard Information and Communication Technology as very essential in their teaching

A Quantitative Examination of Factors that Influence Technology Integration in Higher Education System

The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the status of technology integration in Moroccan higher education system. Forty-six university English language teachers were selected from two universities: Moulay Ismail University Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Meknes and Sidi Mohamed Ben AbdellahDahr – El Mahraz – Fes . The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages. The findings revealed that teachers consider Information and Communication Technology very essential in their teaching. The results also showed that computer technology is integrated in Moroccan universities at low levels. This lack of use of the new technologies in instruction and learning was attributed to several barriers including insufficient professional development, inadequate access to computer technologies, and lack of computer training to name only few.

Using Short Stories in Reading Skills Class

Using literature to teach language has several advantages such as contributing to a better linguistic understanding, a development of creative skills, an authentic model of language use with its rich potential (Ramsaran, 1983; Collie & Slater, 1987). Short story seems to be the most suitable one since it is short, and aims at giving a ⿿single effect⿿, there is usually one plot, a few characters; there is no detailed description of setting. Also, research on short stories in EFL classrooms state that they can be a good indicator of increased motivation, increased interest in reading and improved reading skills (Vural, 2013; Saka, 2014; Pardede, 2011). This study aims to find out the thoughts and attitudes of the first year students in Bulent Ecevit University English Language and Literature Department towards the short stories covered in Reading Skills course in 2015- 2016 fall term. The data gathered via a questionnaire was analyzed using frequency tests. The results indicated that studying short stories has a number of benefits for the students such as broadening their perspectives, enabling them to think about the reasons rather than the result, showing them different life styles, providing them with a comparison between their own culture and other cultures, increasing their appreciation for literature and making them read more short stories.

No Room to Swing a Cat? Animal Treatment and Urban Space in Singapore

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)IntroductionSingapore, the Garden City, has undergone a massive program of urban reform, renewal, and resettlement since independence in 1965. The government of the People's Action Party, which has enjoyed uninterrupted rule, dispersed the population of the overcrowded central-town district to peripheral towns, which were built on land appropriated from old village communities. Through education, land reclamation, military conscription, and public housing, the government created a disciplined industrial workforce (now housed in flats built by the Housing Development Board, or HDB, and linked to factories and offices via highways) along Fordist lines, thus engineering tremendous changes in the human landscape of Singapore (Barr and Skrbis 2008; Chua 1997; Dobbs 2003; Loh 2007; Wee 2007). This massive control over space defined the postcolonial history of Singapore, whose modernity depended as much on facilitating motion as on preventing it (Netz 2004, xii).Although historians have delineated the relationship between authoritarian rule, economic development, and social engineering in Singapore, they have been slow in integrating the work of geographers, who have addressed how landscapes, both material and immaterial, serve as representations and social channels that foster and maintain the state ideologies of human progress and nation building. The government redeveloped the city center-now marked by skyscrapers and the reconstructed racial enclaves of Chinatown, Kampong Glam, and Little India-to showcase Singapore's global connectedness and historical legacies. It developed Marina Promenade and the banks of the Singapore River into a tourist attraction and up-market residential zone that appealed to expatriate executives and foreign visitors. It also created new art spaces such as the Esplanade (home to Theatres on the Bay) and renovated colonial landmarks and dilapidated shophouses to present Singapore as a vibrant arts and hub worthy of admiration at home and abroad (Kong and Yeoh 2003; Chang et al. 2013; Ho et al. 2014).In recent years, historians began to recognize the impact of the natural environment, and attempts to reconfigure it, on the economic, political, and social history of Singapore. They have established that the British colonial authorities and the postcolonial People's Action Party government were interested not only in demolishing outdated structures and flattening the landscape but also in conserving heritage and preserving monuments and parks (including the Botanical Gardens, a new addition to UNESCO's heritage sites as a cultural landscape) to promote scientific research, urban redevelopment, and the construction of a modern national identity (Barnard 2014; Blackburn and Tan 2015). Educated in English-language universities, Singapore's leaders understood that modernization and national success emerged from urban industrial growth, as in the American and European historical experiences. To maintain economic and political legitimacy, they would need to succeed by these terms (Kwak 2008, 87-88).Nevertheless, historians studying Singapore's past have not picked up on animal geographies, which not only inquire into relationships between nature and society and how nature shapes human practices, but also define animals as central agents in the constitution of space and place, and all that entails (Wolch and Emel 1998, xiii). The of geography is unleashed when space constitutes, constrains, and mediates social relations. As Lily Kong and Brenda S. A. Yeoh elaborate, the power relations that define and contest the specificities of the Singaporean nation are negotiated through elements of the landscape, including the landscapes and practices of everyday life (2003, 15). Specialists on Southeast Asia have conducted a fair amount of research on animal-welfare activism and the discursive and practical uses of animals in both colo- nial and postcolonial contexts. …

An exploration of the relationship between undergraduate students’ library book borrowing and academic achievement

This exploratory study examines book circulation patterns among undergraduate university students at an English-language University in Istanbul, Turkey, in order to investigate the relationship between students’ academic achievement and discipline of study, gender and book borrowing habits. Overall, this study supports the important role of the academic library’s print book collection in supporting and contributing to student success and demonstrates a significant positive correlation between undergraduate students’ level of academic achievement and the number of books they borrowed from the university library. This positive correlation was found for students in all faculties and fields of study, but was strongest for students studying qualitative disciplines and was particularly strong for students enrolled in English as a foreign language programmes.

Predictors of Organizational Socialization of Instructors in Higher Education

This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational socialization and various organizational (type of university, training, work conditions, knowledge sharing) and individual (academic degree, teaching experience, length of employment at current work place, job satisfaction, commitment, self-efficacy) level factors, both factors taken together focusing on the content, context and process dimensions of socialization. For this aim, data from 737 public and private university English language instructors were collected with an inventory consisting of three parts made up of self-developed and pre-developed scales. Taking each dimension of organizational socialization as a criterion variable, three sets of predictors were defined for three separate hierarchical regression analyses. The results revealed that socialization of instructors to the organization, department, and task are significantly predicted by several organizational and individual variables. Knowledge sharing and training are the strongest organizational level predictors while job satisfaction, selfefficacy for instructional strategies, and affective commitment are the strongest individual level predictors. The results suggest higher education administrators adapt organizational and individual level managerial strategies to facilitate organizational, department and task socialization in higher education organizations.

Continuous Professional Development of English Language Teachers: Perception and Practices

Professional development is considered as an essential element in enhancing the teaching and learning process to ensure student learning. Professional development can also be deemed as a cornerstone of teacher professionalism and quality. The governments and educational institutions invest significantly in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) to improve teacher quality and to meet the changing needs of the students. To uncover the perceptions and practices of professional development in Saudi Arabia, a survey was conducted at Taif University English Language Centre. The sample consisted of 121 English language teachers from various countries and having varied educational and academic experiences. The survey comprised items relevant to learning approaches, concept of professional development, perceptions and feedback on CPD. The respondents supported lifelong learning and experiential learning leading towards learner centered approach. They perceived the CPD as a challenge to their existing knowledge and classroom practice. However, they expressed their concerns regarding indigenization of activities in CPDs, institutional support in conducting classroom activities, and follow up activities. Keywords : Professional development, Teacher perception, ELT in Saudi Arabia

“Building the New Jerusalem in Canada’s Green and Pleasant Land”: The Social Gospel and the Roots of English-Language Academic Sociology in Canada, 1889-1921

According to the conventional account of the history of English-Canadian sociology, the discipline was established in the 1920s at McGill, followed by developments at Dalhousie, Toronto and elsewhere. I dispute this account by documenting the substantial institutional footprint of so-called “social gospel” sociology in Canada’s Protestant universities and religious colleges, 1889-1921: courses taught; faculty appointments made; programs established. Between 1889 and 1921, 28 men, many of them clerics, taught sociology for two years or more in one of Canada’s English-language universities or Protestant denominational colleges. By 1921, 11 institutions offered sociology courses, 7 institutions had made a dedicated faculty appointment in sociology, and 8 institutions offered a program in sociology. In most cases, their teaching reflected the political – but not theological – principles of the social gospel. I argue that these men are the true pioneers of Canadian sociology and that we should rewrite the first chapter of Canadian sociology to give them their due.

‘Where Have All the Students Gone?’ Absenteeism in a Turkish State University English Language Preparatory Year

<p>Research presented here adopted a mixed method approach to data gathering in order to provide a case study that investigated reasons for students in a higher education context in Turkey failing the year due to repeated absenteeism. A survey administered to 109 students and 43 teachers revealed varying reasons and perceptions of why students were absent from language lessons. Individual and follow-up interviews with ten students revealed how absence was due largely to logistical and personal problems, principally commitment and motivation, rather than those related to learning or teaching, which reflects Longhurst (1999). Based upon these points, it is clear that in order to maximise language learning opportunities in the university preparatory year, the issue of both potential and actual students failing due to absenteeism (SFDA) requires urgent address.</p>

Políticas linguísticas e suas consequências não planejadas: o programa “Inglês Sem Fronteiras” e suas repercussões nos cursos de Letras

In the context of globalization, the goal of improving Brazilian science competitiveness has set into motion several actions towards the development of researchers’ and scholars’ foreign language proficiency. The efforts focused on higher education engender transformations at other educational levels, due to their interrelationships. As a result, unintended consequences may emerge from short and medium-term goals to meet specific demands. The Federal Government Program “English without Borders” (EwB), created in 2012, is an example of a language policy attached to a competitiveness development project of the country in the international scenario with the potential to impact English language teacher education at university level and the teaching of English at the Basic Education level. Like other governmental Programs which have been implemented and researched by the universities themselves (e.g. Pibid, Parfor), EwB has also been the object of investigation. In this article, we present an overview of such studies, through lexico-semantic analyses of oral presentations’ abstracts from three conferences of national relevance and reach in the area of language studies: V Congress of the Brazilian Association of University English Language Teachers (ABRAPUI), V Latin American Congress of Language Teacher Education (CLAFPL) and XI Brazilian Congress of Applied Linguistics (CBLA). The analyses aim at highlighting aspects of EwB development and how these relate to the initial education of English language teachers at university level. Keywords: English without Borders, Language Policies, Internationalization.

Developing Teachers’ Expertise to Teach English Language: An Evaluative Study of Professional Development Programme at Taif University English Language Centre

Language teachers need opportunities to enhance and update their language teaching skills. Current researches in English language teaching methodologies have proved that teachers who stay up to date with latest teaching techniques are always efficient. They always need to be trained and aware of how they can continue being effective teachers and cope with relative challenges such as students’ low level of language proficiency, large number of students in class at a time and longer teaching hours. Hence the sole objective of the present research is to evaluate the effectiveness of Professional Development Program (PDP) of Taif University. Seeking for this objective, the researcher collected the data through a questionnaire from the participating teachers both males (50) and females (50). The survey was based on five principles drawn by Loucks-Horsley, et al. (2010). The respondents acknowledged the utility and importance of continuous up gradation of their professional development and leadership skills. They also acknowledged that PDP provides learning opportunity for them. Furthermore they regarded PDP in line with the TU-ELC mission, goal, and objectives. However, they expressed constraints regarding experimentation of new instructional practices, continuous support and follow-up activities, and a research base similar to the ELC situation, community and context.

Growth Vocabulary Size Of Some College English Language Students

Growth Vocabulary Size Of Some College English Language Students

Preemptive And Reactive Focus-on-Form Instruction :, Effect On Learning Parallel Grammatical Structures

The present study set out to investigate the differential effect of focus-on-form (FonF) instruction. Two research questions were raised: 1) Does FonF instruction,both preemptive and reactive, have a differential effect on learners' interlanguage? 2) Are short-term gains, if at all, maintained in the long-term? Fifty one (51) third-year LMD university English language learners are divided into two groups: a FonF group (N=27), and a Control group (N=24). Parallel structures were selected as the target form. A Grammaticality Judgment Test (GJT) was used to measure accuracy of the target form over the short- and the long-term; therefore, three similar but not identical tests were administered at three temporal times: a pre-test, an immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test. The results of the present study showed that FonF instruction had a differential effect in language learning in both the short- and the long-term. Recommendations for both research and pedagogy are discussed.

Английский язык для академических целей в программе высшего профессионального образования

The paper discusses the organization of English as a Foreign Language curriculum in Russian higher education, its objectives and key competences it develops. It is argued that the focus of a university English language teaching should be on developing academic competence of students, accommodating for the fulfillment of study objectives involving the use of English and preparing them for international exchanges and independent work with English-language resources. This can be achieved by setting English for Academic Purposes as a core module of the university EFL curriculum.

Does Attending an English-Language University Diminish Abilities in the Native Language? Data from Turkey

Does a native language suffer when students take all of their classes in a foreign language, even in their home country? Turkish students studying psychology, economics, or English literature with English as the language of instruction (N = 91) were studied across a three-year period. Test scores, word fluency measures, and self-ratings were broadly comparable with students enrolled in a standard Turkish curriculum (N = 74). However, differences were obtained among English literature students, many of whom anticipate careers as English teachers or translators. These students had lower Turkish entrance exam scores, and word fluency scores were higher in English than Turkish, while the reverse was found for all other students, including other English-medium instructed students. The self-assessed L1-Turkish writing abilities of the English literature students also declined slightly across the three-year study. We conclude that intense engagement with a foreign language may put the native language at risk for temporary attrition, but studying with a foreign-language as the medium of instruction does not.