Male English Language Learners Research Articles

‘Ρε, έσ̆ει καλαμαράες που εν μιλούν έτσι καλά ούτε στα ελληνικά’: Negotiating Masculinities and Intersubjectivities in English Language Learning

Abstract Post-structuralist theories of language and gender have become increasingly attractive to language learning researchers. However, masculinity, as part of a socially and culturally constructed system, in relation to English language learning has rarely been investigated. The current study examines how male English language learners negotiate their masculine subject positions in an English language classroom in Cyprus and how they negotiate masculine intersubjectivities with the researcher apropos of English. Semi-structured interviews, enriched with descriptions of attitudes, feelings, and incidents, were carried out with five male adolescent Greek Cypriot English language learners. Through Frame Analysis, the findings evince how these language learners challenge their usual linguistic and masculine habitus and how they achieve interesubjectivities through the symbolic powers of English, Cypriot Greek, and Standard Greek.

ELLs in Higher Education: Learning Strategy Use and Goal Orientation

This study examined language learning strategy and goal orientation of college-level English Language Learners (ELLs) by using a questionnaire survey. It analyzed the relationship between goal orientation and demographic characteristics and further explored the correlation between learning strategy use and goal orientation. The results of the study show that non-Asian ELLs had a greater performance goal orientation tendency than Asian ELLs. ELLs who had bachelor’s degree had a higher level of mastery goal orientation, as well as performance-approach goals than those who had master’s and doctoral degree. Female ELLs had a higher level of mastery goal orientation than male ELLs. Mastery goal orientation is positively related to all types of strategy, and it possessed the beneficial role in strategy use. Effective instructional methods for ELLs were provided to promote their adopting of mastery goals.

An Analysis of Politeness Strategies of Disagreement: The Case of Students of English Education Study Program in one State Islamic University in Sumatera, Indonesia

The pupoposes of this study were (1) to find out the realizations of politeness strategies of disagreement by the sixth semester students of English Education students of Islamic State University in Sumatera, and (2) to figure out the most common types of politeness strategy used by them. The study employed qualitative research. The data were taken through a written test and Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The sample was taken by using cluster random sampling method which consisted of 12 male students and 12 female students. The study revealed that female and male English language learners experienced four types of politeness strategy: positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record politeness, and off-record politeness with negative politeness as the most frequent strategy used by female and male English language learners. The result of the study showed that negative politeness was dominant politeness strategy which had value of 63,33%. The second place was bald-on-record (23,33%), the third place was positive politeness (11,67%), and the last one was off-record (1,67%). The conclusion of this study indicated that in expressing politeness strategy for disagreement, both female and male respondents tended to perform negative politeness strategy.

The Impact of Extensive Reading on Grammatical Mastery of Iranian EFL Learner

This research is intended to deal with The Impact of Extensive Reading on Grammatical Mastery of Iranian EFL Learners in Bushehr city, Iran. Grammar is not only structure of language but also is the heart of language. Language without of its heart cannot be alive. Reading is defined as a visual process. It is the ability to see symbols clearly with eyes. It is a perceptual process – perception meaning that readers thought processes is able to take these symbols and to invest them with meaning. Reading as one of the language skills plays a vital role in English foreign language settings. The population of this study consisted of 40 male English language learners studying English at Educational and Cultural English Language Institute from Bushehr city in Iran. They were in the age range of 15 to 16. After the administration of Language Proficiency Test, the subjects divided into two experimental and control groups; each group consisting of 20 homogeneous students. In the treatment period, the experimental group of the students was instructed for forty five days. This paper showed that there is a significant difference between the both experimental and control groups in answering to the post-test questions and these are the participants in experimental group that had better performance than the participants in control group.

Gender and Bilingual Education: An Exploratory Study of the Academic Achievement of Latina and Latino English Learners

Although biliteracy plays a vital role in academic achievement, there has been little research on the unique needs of female and male English language learners. Becoming biliterate is a complex process, compounded by other variables such as 1st-language background, class, culture, and gender. Among these variables, gender has been the least examined and reported for English language learners in the United States. This exploratory quantitative study investigates the interplay between gender and biliteracy in a diverse urban school district. The quantitative data demonstrate gender variations across all years and grade levels and on both English and Spanish assessments.

Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as A Foreign Language Persian Learners

This study aims to investigate the attrition rate of EFL concrete and abstract vocabulary among continuing and non-continuing Iranian female and male English language learners across different proficiency levels. They are students of a University and majored in different fields (between 20 and 25 years old). There was no treatment in this study where the researcher compared two groups on the same variables. Hence, the design of the current study is an ex-post facto design. A 40-item vocabulary test which varied across two proficiency levels are used to measure rate of vocabulary attrition as the instrument of this research. In the two stages, after an interval of three months, the students are taken the same tests. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between EFL attrition rate of abstract and concrete nouns among the continuing students across different proficiency levels. However, this hypothesis was rejected for the non-continuing learners at intermediate and advanced proficiency level.