Learners Face Research Articles

Future meaning in Vietnamese and English: Similarities and Differences

The paper describes in detail and employs one table and six discussions to compare expressions of future meaning in Vietnamese and English declaratives to find out their differences and similarities. The findings are the basis for giving some advice to learners of Vietnamese and English. Vietnamese neither distinguishes nor employs grammatical means to express various shades of future meaning. A lexical means like sẽ, định, tính, or sắp, or a combination of two or more like định sẽ, tính sẽ, or dự tính sẽ, does. The lexical means may be omitted when an adverbial of future time like sáng mai, meaning tomorrow morning, occurs. At first glance, Vietnamese learners face difficulty because one expression in their mother tongue separates into two or more in English, resulting in unnecessary differentiation; conversely, native speakers of English seem more enjoyable noticing that two or more expressions in their mother tongue merge into one in Vietnamese. However, to understand Vietnamese sentences, foreigners must depend more on contextual cues than when they process English sentences. This is uneasy for the native English speakers, who are accustomed to using a language in which all the modal meanings have signs, either lexical or grammatical or both, with an explicit indicator in the structure of the nuclear predication of the declaratives.

Students’ Perception of The Use of Mind Mapping as a Visual Learning Tool

Senior high school is the grade where young learners face the most complex lesson. The complex lesson leads students to have learning tools that could help them in the learning process. Mind mapping is one of creative visual learning tool that make the lesson becomes clearer. This study is aim to find the students’ perception of the use of mind mapping as visual learning tool at SMA Negeri 1 Singaraja. The study used qualitative research method design. The data of this study were collected by open-ended questionnaire and interview. The subjects of this study were 16 students of twelve grade students of SMA N 1 Singaraja which selected randomly. The result of the study showed that the students have positive perception towards the use of mind mapping as a visual learning tool. The majority of the students agreed that mind mapping can really help them in making summary and taking notes, giving them opportunity to be more creative, and helping them in developing their ideas.

The Importance of Using Collocations, and Its Difficulties Experienced by Kurdish EFL Learners

Abstract The current study attempts to investigate the importance of using collocation and its performance among EFL learners, besides revealing the difficulties encountered by Kurdish EFL learners. The English department at Soran University and 10 teachers who teach in the English department participated in this study in the academic year 2019-2020. The research method used in this research is the analytical descriptive method. The researchers used two tools, a test, and two questionnaires for teachers and students. The finding of this study elucidates the importance of using collocation and revealed that Kurdish EFL learners face difficulties in using collocation, besides the fact that teachers of the English language do not pay much attention to teaching collocation as it is needed. In the light of these findings, the researchers suggest some recommendations.

Factors affecting Grade 6 learners’ reading performance in a rural school in Maluti, South Africa

Background: Rural learners face severe reading challenges that are unique to their environment. The challenges include parents’ low level of education, little or no parental support, lack of reading material, and parents’ low socio-economic status. It is therefore important that rural education research highlights these challenges in order to help in addressing them.Objectives: The study sought to explore the factors affecting the reading performance of Grade 6 learners from the Maluti District in the Eastern Cape.Methods: The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was followed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 purposively selected learners. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was used as a theoretical framework to anchor the study. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.Results: The findings showed that the reading performance of learners from rural areas such as the Maluti District was affected by several factors, specifically, the low level of education of their parents, a home environment that is not conducive for after-school reading, the parents’ socio-economic status, and non-availability of reading material at school and at home.Conclusion: Recommendations are made for appropriate interventions that seek to overcome the identified factors that hinder rural learners’ reading performance. The study identified a number of contributing factors that are likely to serve as barriers to rural learners’ reading performance. Knowing these factors is likely to assist teachers in making educated judgements regarding the teaching methods and the appropriate strategies to employ to help learners overcome the identified barriers to reading.

Assessment of Iraqi EFL college students’ achievement in vocabulary

One of the most important aspects of studying English as a foreign language is vocabulary, mainly at a low level of communicating meanings. Though vocabulary is of high importance, EFL learners face great difficulties in acquiring it. One of the significant issues is that EFL students have no clue on how to learn vocabulary effectively. The othear issue is that instructional methods can be insufficient to such a degree that they can be due to their uselessness in encouraging learners to practice language, as they should be. Pedagogically, the study is expected to be useful for syllabus designers as it concentrates on a vital aspect of language, i.e. vocabulary. This study may also be of some significance to language examiners who assess learners’ vocabulary mastery in an appropriate context. Since context-free and context-dependent vocabulary is essential in EFL, the current research aims to evaluate the EFL College students’ ability to use context-free and context-dependent vocabulary.

Contextualizing school achievement among vulnerable learners: Implications for science and practice: Commentary.

The current set of papers in this special issue capture the range of viewpoints, scientific approaches, and populations needed to illuminate and tackle the issues of school achievement among vulnerable learners. This includes providing a framework for researchers to work from relevant policy findings, and literature reviews to small scale studies. The manuscripts also traverse different aspects of scientific inquiry - from data reported by federal and state programs, thus providing a "bird's eye view" of findings, to more granular neurobiological approaches. Across all papers is the clear theme of needing to shift from where we have been in order to establish a path forward for where we need to go to account for learners that have been relatively neglected in scientific studies. To break down barriers of inequity and increase our understanding of causes and consequences of vulnerable learners, there is a need to re-think how we establish policies and allocate funds, as well as broadening our lens as we conduct scientific studies. Each piece in this special issue calls for the need to better understand these issues that vulnerable learners face to address inequities in our educational ecosystems. Together they provide a rich set of insights that have significant implications for science and practice.

The Challenges of E-Learning for Higher Education Lecturers and Learners

The use of E-Learning in the English language learning process is very useful for stakeholders, especially lecturers and learners. But in reality, lecturers and learners often experience difficulties in using it both from a technical and non-technical perspective. This study aims to investigate the challenges faced by EFL lecturers and learners and how they face them. To overcome this problem, this research employed a case study. This study involved 244 learners and 12 lecturers to fill out a questionnaire and five of them were interviewed. To collect questionnaire data, this research used a google form, meanwhile, the researcher carried it out online using the zoom application for interviewing respondents. After collecting the data, the results of the questionnaire were processed using IBM SPSS software and the interview results were described qualitatively. The results showed that lecturer constraints include lack of time to develop E-Learning content, inability to optimally utilize E-Learning features, problems in lecturer-learner interaction, poor internet connection, and lack of learner motivation. Meanwhile, the challenges of learners include the lack of tools to access E-Learning, lack of motivation, technical problems, and barriers to E-Learning features. It can be concluded that lecturers and learners face challenges both technically and non-technically in using E-Learning. The implication of this research is that despite all the challenges faced, lecturers and learners are required to be able to adapt to E-Learning environment in order to facilitate the online learning process.

Derivational and Inflectional Morphemes on the Thesis Abstracts

An analysis of derivational and inflectional morpheme has great values because sometimes, learners face difficulties in understanding those morphemes. Dealing with this problem, this study was aimed to describe the types of derivational and inflectional morphemes. As this study analyzed the written documents, this study was identified as library research. Subjects of this study were five alumni of the master of English education study program of STKIP PGRI Sidoarjo. Documentation and the researcher himself were recognized as the instruments of this study. The data of this study were all words attached by derivational or inflectional morpheme, and all those data were taken from students’ research abstracts. In analyzing the data, the researcher used content analysis. The results showed that the researcher found and discussed two types of derivational morpheme namely derivational prefix (“-un” and “-in”) and derivational suffix (“-ion”, “-al”, “-ance”, “-er”, “-ive”, “-ity”, “-able”, “-ary”, and “-ly”). However, the researcher found and discussed 5 types of inflectional morpheme covering: plural (-s), possessive (-s’ or ‘s), present (-s or -es), past (-ed), and present participle (-ing).

Factors Contributing to Learners’ Lack of Self-Confidence in Speaking English

In English language learning, some learners face an issue promoting their speaking skills which is caused by the lack of self-confidence. As a response to this issue, this study is conducted to examine the factors contributing to learners’ lack of self-confidence in speaking English. This study employed a descriptive quantitative design. The data were collected from 147 students of SMAN 2 Lumajang using a questionnaire adapted from CSEFL (Confidence in Speaking English as a Foreign Language). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis. The findings showed that most of the learners possessed a moderate level of self-confidence, and ability was the most contributing factor to the lack of self-confidence for the majority of the learners. It was suggested that the teachers should create learning environments that promote learners’ self-confidence, for instance, by giving motivation and equal chance to speak in front of the class.

Construction of Personalized Learning Platform Based on Collaborative Filtering Algorithm

On the network service platform for vocational education, there are currently over 10,000 online courses. Learners face a challenge in selecting interesting courses from the vast resources available. Learners’ urgent need for personalized learning is becoming more apparent as educational informatization progresses. Personalized recommendation (PR) technology can aid personalized learning and increase learners’ learning efficiency significantly. This paper constructs a smart classroom model based on AI (artificial intelligence) by studying the connotation and characteristics of smart classroom in light of the current research status and trend of smart classroom at home and abroad. The merits of the recommendation system are determined by the recommendation algorithm used by PR system. This paper primarily focuses on developing a personalized learning platform based on the CF (collaborative filtering) algorithm, as well as conducting system requirements analysis, database design, functional module design, implementation, and testing on this foundation. Experiments are carried out to see if the optimized PR algorithm in the network learning platform is effective.

Empathy and Opportunity: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Library Services for Distance Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic provided opportunities to create innovative, robust services as libraries worked to support residential-turned-online students. This paper situates the pandemic in the broader context of the challenges distance learners face, discusses the opportunity for innovation that came as a result of the pandemic at one university library, and considers the lasting impact these changes may have on the future of library services for distance learners.

Lived Experiences of Learners With Cerebral Palsy Educated in Inclusive Classrooms in the Czech Republic

Changes in legislation in the Czech Republic in 2016 moved the system of education towards inclusion and created more favorable conditions for joint education, but we still do not have enough information about experiences of learners with cerebral palsy educated in an inclusive environment. A qualitative design was chosen to explore the lived experiences of Czech learners with cerebral palsy educated in inclusive schools. Semi-structured interviews combined with biographical narration of learners with cerebral palsy, aged 12–20, and a brief questionnaire for demographic data were used for data collection. Data analyses were carried out according to van Manen’s approach, including defining the main themes and description of the lived experiences of learners. The following four themes were identified: 1) barriers, 2) strategies for overcoming obstacles, 3) values in relation to peers, 4) and the future. The results of this qualitative study point to a number of obstacles and pressures that these learners face in their education, as well as to the ways of solving some problems. The results indicate that it is important to realize that the consequences of interpersonal relationships significantly influence the formation of self-concept and personality development of these learners, and therefore it is necessary for teaching staff to deal with the support of positive relationships at schools. When creating a supportive inclusive environment, it is also necessary to pay attention to the learners’ future, because the present Czech society does not offer sufficiently inclusive conditions in further education and occupation.

THE IMPACT OF VISUAL STIMULI ON THE CONTENT OF WRITING IN TAMIL LANGUAGE: A STUDY AMONG USM UNDERGRADUATES

Visual images are increasingly appearing in learning and teaching resources, delivered across a range of media in a variety of formats: digitally Web-based material and multimedia as well as print and as transparencies. The proliferation of image-rich resources is due to the wide availability of digital images and access to the technology and graphics software that facilitates the creation and delivery of visual materials. The main aim of this research is to investigate the role of visual stimuli in enhancing writing skills among USM undergraduates who are taking Tamil as foreign language. Writing is an important skill often emphasized among foreign language learners. However, most foreign language learners face difficulties to pen down their thoughts. The respondents of this research are pursuing LAT 300 (Tamil Language III) course at the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation and are divide into two groups, experimental and control group. The methods used is written assignment; topic with visual stimuli for experimental group and topic without stimuli for control group. The written assignments were graded using the university’s grading rubric. In the questionnaire, the respondents were also asked to give feedback on the use of visual stimuli in writing. The findings of this study revealed that the experimental group performed better as they were given visuals. The experimental group respondents highlighted that they needed stimuli to motivate and trigger their background knowledge on the essay topics. It is hoped that this study will aid language teachers and practitioners to utilize visuals as a support in the teaching of Tamil Language as foreign language.

Exploring Visualisation for Embryology Education: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective.

Embryology and congenital malformations play a key role in multiple medical specialties including obstetrics and paediatrics. The process of learning clinical embryology involves two basic principles; firstly, understanding time-sensitive morphological changes that happen in the developing embryo and, secondly, appreciating the clinical implications of congenital conditions when development varies from the norm. Visualising the sequence of dynamic events in embryonic development is likely to be challenging for students, as these processes occur not only in three dimensions but also in the fourth dimensions of time. Consequently, features identified at any one timepoint can subsequently undergo morphological transitions into distinct structures or may degenerate and disappear. When studying embryology, learners face significant challenges in understanding complex, multiple and simultaneous events which are likely to increase student cognitive load. Moreover, the embryology content is very nonlinear. This nonlinear content presentation makes embryology teaching challenging for educators. Embryology is typically taught in large groups, via didactic lecture presentations that incorporate two-dimensional diagrams or foetal ultrasound images. This approach is limited by incomplete or insufficient visualisation and lack of interactivity.It is recommended that the focus of embryology teaching should instill an understanding of embryological processes and emphasise conceptualising the potential congenital conditions that can occur, linking pre-clinical and clinical disciplines together. A variety of teaching methods within case-based and problem-based curricula are commonly used to teach embryology. Additional and supplementary resources including animations and videos are also typically utilised to demonstrate complex embryological processes such as septation, rotation and folding.We propose that there is a need for embryology teaching in the twenty-first century to evolve. This is particularly required in terms of appropriate visualisation resources and teaching methodologies which can ensure embryology learning is relevant to real-world scenarios. Here we explore embryology teaching resources and methodologies and review existing evidence-based studies on their implementation and impact on student learning. In doing so, we aim to inform and support the practice of embryology educators and the learning of their students.

The analysis of word class and morphology for Stage2 and Stage 4 texts in ESLL context

Abstract 
 
 This research is intended to present the writing difficulties that second language learners have encounter through their learning process. Linguists have proved that English second language learners (ESLL) face some difficulties in their writing because it is hard to understand ESLL perspectives. Many samples of ESLL writing have been examined and proved that their writing lacks some linguistic features. Coherent, accurate and creative text is the goal for English language teachers to be produced by their students. Word class (parts of speech) and morphology are the key features of language that indicate its linguistic system, especially sentence structure. The researcher tries to analyze word class and morphology in two selected texts of stage 2 and stage 4 in a second language learning center. One of the findings of this research is the use of bound grammatical morpheme (inflectional morpheme) for both texts is to some extent justifiable although the writer of S2 text makes some mistakes in producing the right word to give new meaning.

The Intersection of Older Students and Disability: How Age-Friendly Universities Can Boost Visibility and Accessibility

The needs of older learners differ from traditional students, and many services and resources available at higher education institutions are geared towards students aged 18-25 (Silverstein, Choi, & Bulot, 2001). Age Friendly University (AFU) principles highlight the need to consider older learners at a university. Older learners face various barriers to education including balancing schoolwork with responsibilities and accessibility of campus resources (Silverstein et al., 2001). This study examined how an AFU designated university is working to better understand their older students. Methods: A web-based pilot survey of older learners (N=248) asked all students ages 40 and older a series of questions regarding motivation to attend school, barriers and supports, campus environment, and connection with AFU principles. Analysis: A t-test analysis explored differences in motivation, barriers and challenges, and connection to campus between students who identified as having a disability and those who did not. Findings: We found there were significant differences between the groups in how health impacted their education (p=.001), being able to physically access campus (p=.014), the availability of online classes (p=.047), and the hours of operation of student support services (p=.045). There were also differences between groups in how connected they felt to campus based on feeling welcomed by faculty (p = .033) and feeling satisfied with their level of engagement at the university (p = .002). Discussion: Our results demonstrate the need to fully engage older learners with a disability as part of diversity and inclusion efforts to facilitate connection to the campus community.

Investigating the Difficulties Encountered by Iraqi EFL University Learners' Performance in The Pronunciation of Morphophonemic Changes at College Level English Department

This study is mainly concerned with the morphophonemic changes as one of the of the common and essential processes in the English derivation on the one hand , and as a problematic area for English language learners on the other hand . This study aims at investigating the difficulties encountered Iraqi EFL university learners in their pronouncing of morphophonemic changes . To achieve the aim above the present study hypothesizes that : the learners do not encounter difficulties in the pronunciation morphophonemic changes . The hypothesis has been verified through adopting a diagnostic test of two questions . The test has been applied to a sample of 140 Iraqi EFL learners at their fourth year from department of English , College of Education ,University of Wasit during the academic year 2010-2011.Then the subjects' responses have been collected and analyzed to draw the findings of this study. The analysis gives the following results : 1-Iraqi EFL university learners face difficulties in the pronunciation of morphophonemic changes as the highest rate of their incorrect responses in Q1 , Q2 ( 66.7,58.67 ) which outweighs the rate of their correct responses (33.7, 41.33). 2-The students face more difficulty at the production level than the recognition level. In the light of the results , certain recommendations and suggestions have been put for further studies.

Trialling micro-learning design to increase engagement in online courses

PurposeThis paper reports on how micro-learning design principles are being trialled in an Australian and a Malaysian university to make online courses more accessible and attractive, and a more positive experience, with the aim of increasing student success. Central to this approach is segmenting materials into “bite-size” instalments by way of short micro-lecture presentations and reducing other content. The aim of this “less is more” strategy is to reduce unnecessary cognitive load as an impediment to learning so that focus can shift to prioritising the most essential skills and content. The purpose of this trial is to explore the efficacy of micro-learning as a means for increasing student engagement and learning.Design/methodology/approachThe trials involved a mixed mode methodology drawing on qualitative and ratings data from course satisfaction surveys and records on grades and completion.FindingsTo date, results have shown significant increases in student engagement and satisfaction, and also performance. Our application of micro-learning included reducing volume of content based on its practical value, use of novelty (e.g. infusing guest presenter input) and design of practical and collaborative student activities.Research limitations/implicationsEarly results are encouraging regarding apparent utility for engaging learners and ease of application, i.e. implementability and transference potential. However, the rapidly expanding area of online learning requires further research to establish a well-validated evidence base for effective online teaching practices.Practical implicationsThe findings are relevant to universities involved in online and blended learning. Micro-learning design methods show promise in being able to address major engagement barriers including cognitive overload.Social implicationsMore students are struggling with learning in today's social environment brought about with the massification of higher education. Micro-learning seeks to address major barriers these learners face with methods that go beyond traditional teaching practices.Originality/valueFindings here are encouraging and contribute to existing understanding on ways to increase learner engagement in the competitive and fast-growing area of online learning for universities globally.

Reviewer Experience vs. Expertise: Which Matters More for Good Course Reviews in Online Learning?

With a surging number of online courses on MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms, online learners face increasing difficulties in choosing which courses to take. Online course reviews posted by previous learners provide valuable information for prospective learners to make informed course selections. This research investigates the effects of reviewer experience and expertise on reviewer competence in contributing high-quality and helpful reviews for online courses. The empirical study of 39,114 online reviews from 3276 online courses on a leading MOOC platform in China reveals that both reviewer experience and expertise positively affect reviewer competence in contributing helpful reviews. In particular, the effect of reviewer expertise on reviewer competence in contributing helpful reviews is much more prominent than that of reviewer experience. Reviewer experience and expertise do not interact in enhancing reviewer competence. The analysis also reveals distinct groups of reviewers. Specifically, reviewers with low expertise and low experience contribute the majority of the reviews; reviewers with high expertise and high experience are rare, accounting for a small portion of the reviews; the rest of the reviews are from reviewers with high expertise, but low experience, or those with low expertise, but high experience. Our work offers a new analytical approach to online learning and online review literature by considering reviewer experience and expertise as reviewer competence dimensions. The results suggest the necessity of focusing on reviewer expertise, instead of reviewer experience, in choosing and recommending reviewers for online courses.

PROCEDURAL ESSAY WRITING: STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES

Language learners living in the expanding circle certainly face probems that may not be encountered by their counterparts in the inner or outer circle. One of the problems these learners face is in the field of writing. They also need special strategies in overcoming these problems. This study was done to investigate the problems faced by students in writing Procedural Essays as well as the strategies to overcome the problems. This study attempted to answer two research questions: What problems do students face in writing Procedural Essays? and What are students' strategies to overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays? This study used a qualitative method. To collect the data, the researchers used two instruments, which are open-ended and close-ended questionnaires and interviews. The participants of this research were 27 students from batch 2020 who took Procedural Writing Class in the 2020/2021 Academic Year. The results of this research showed that there were three problems faced by students in writing Procedural Essays. Those problems were problems of topic development, problems with vocabulary, and problems with grammar. The result also indicated the most strategies used by students to overcome the problems, such as receiving feedback from teachers, making an outline, and asking friends for help.