Poor English Research Articles

The Contribution of English Reading Materials to Improving Students' English Performance in Lower Secondary Schools in the Shyira Sector of Nyabihu District, Rwanda

This research aimed to examine the relationship between the use of English reading materials and the improvement of students' English language performance in Lower Secondary Schools in the Shyira sector. Based on the Simple View of Reading (SVR) and the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), the descriptive research design with a mixed approach was employed. Two selected schools were studied: one with a well-equipped library containing English reading materials and the other with a poorly equipped library lacking English reading materials. The study population consisted of 106 individuals, including 92 lower secondary students, 10 teachers, and 4 Deputy Head teacher in charge of studies /teachers, selected randomly from a population of 145. Primary data and secondary data were collected through questionnaires and interview guides. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively by use of excel and the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) while qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. The findings reveal the use of various reading materials, such as newspapers, textbooks, handouts, dictionaries, expert opinions, poetry, online readings, and adventure stories in Lower Secondary Schools in the Shyira sector. It was observed that the lack of English reading materials and libraries in lower secondary schools leads to poor English performance among students. The study suggests strategies to improve learners' English skills, including promoting the use of English reading materials, fostering a culture of reading, and motivating students to utilize libraries. Additionally, teachers should serve as English role models and actively encourage reading to enhance students' motivation.

Integrative and instrumental but low investment: The English learning motivation of Indonesian senior high school students

Considered important for global competitiveness like ASEAN Economic Society, the English proficiency of Indonesian students is unfortunately not satisfactory yet. This condition is, one of which, due to low teachers’ professionalism and students’ motivation for English learning. The motivation of students may become weak because they have not found ways to identify, drive and sustain it. Of the various studies on motivation and challenges in EFL practice in the Indonesian context, research specifically addressing how learners find motivation triggers synergized into project-based learning for sustainable and continuous English learning is still limited. This survey and interview study investigates the motivation of Senior High School (SHS) students in West Java province of Indonesia on English learning and how to drive their motivation through a collaborative project as mandated by the 2013 National Curriculum. Results of questionnaires, interviews and document analysis show that despite having integrative and instrumental motivation to learn English, the participating SHS students show low investment as indicated by low learning enthusiasm in the classroom and poor English performance. This low motivation is also related to some socioeconomic status such as school geographical location, classroom learning situation, and parental supports. The study recommends students’ involvement in a cooperative learning project which can direct and energize their English learning motivation so that they can have increased motivation, good English proficiency and become global citizens with high competitiveness.

A Qualitative Phenomenological Investigation of Pre-university English as a Second Language Learners’ Experiences in Malaysia

This research study explicitly analyses pre-university learners’ individual learning experiences of English as a second language in a public university in Malaysia. In an attempt to gauge participants’ individual learning experiences, this study drew from Skinner’s (1957) behaviourism, Krashen’s (2020) nonnative language acquisition and Vygotsky’s (1974) sociocultural theories of learning. The behaviourism theory puts forth that learning a second language is a mechanical process which relies heavily on habit formation (Skinner, 1957). Krashen’s (2020) nonnative language acquisition and Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theories, on the other hand, posit that a new language is naturally and effortlessly acquired through social interactions that require cognitive reasoning (Vygotsky, 1978). The qualitative findings received from one to one unstructured interviews were analysed in relation to the aforesaid theories. The findings revealed that informants studied English for university admission and that their sociocultural environment inhibited them from speaking the language outside the classroom. Discerning that the conventional teaching of English would not help them to attain their goal, informants though asserted to experience a drop in motivation throughout their English course, established an artificial linguistic environment for them to receive comprehensible inputs of English from various sources. Four out of five informants affirmed their preference to learn English in English speaking nations to be able to practice English in the wider community, while one underlined his/her preference for non-English speaking nations due to the fear of having difficulties in understanding accented English and of being laughed for his/her poor command English by native English speakers. Frequent addition of the linguistic suffix ‘lah’ from Bahasa Malaysia was added to standard English by local informants, leading to the creation of a hybrid landscape. Pedagogical implications for second language teaching and learning are raised alongside a revision of the structure, content and teaching strategies of existing English as a second language course.

CEFR Informed Development of Digital Expository Text Resources for High School Students in Cirebon, Indonesia

Indonesia's English Proficiency Index (EPI) has declined significantly over the past 11 years, according to Education First's annual report. The country's latest ranking is 81st out of 111 countries, indicating poor English performance. One of the contributing factors is the conventional pedagogy that focuses mainly on grammar, while the disregard of various forms of English literature, such as expository texts, impedes students' writing ability. Developing digital learning resources that provide new insights is crucial. So in this study investigates the key creative processes employed in the development of digital expository text resources for high school students in Indonesia and how these processes inform the characteristics of the product prototype. The research design is a qualitative approach, specifically a single-case study design, with the author being the only participant. Data collection methods included document analysis, and content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings indicate that the key creative processes involved in the development of digital expository text resources include lesson plan analysis, text analysis, and CEFR analysis, among others. These processes informed the characteristics of the product prototype, including its visual design, interactive features, and pedagogical strategies. The study suggests that the development of digital expository text resources should be informed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to align with the language proficiency levels of the target audience. This study provides valuable insights into the creative processes involved in the development of digital expository text resources and how these processes can inform the characteristics of the product prototype.

Research on the Ability for Research Works of Nurses from Southwest China

Objective: To investigate the status and demand for research works of nurses, the existing problems were quired and the corresponding solution strategy were promoted, so as to provide the reference for changing their current status. Methods: Nurses in hospitals form Southwest China were investigated with questionnaire, and their general information, research status and ability, research needs were collected and analyzed in this study. Results: A total of 184 questionnaires were collected, which showed that most of nurses were young women with low professional title, lower educational degree, poor English levels, and short working time. Most of the nurse have the less experience and scientific research awareness, they also had great demands for scientific training and taking part in more scientific planning with the aim to improve their ability in future research works. Conclusion: It is necessary for paying more attention to culture the scientific research ability of nurse, which would benefit for promoting the development of nursing discipline, and improving their serve ability. This would help to improve the quality for performing the clinical service by nurse.

27 Salient Spoken English Grammar Errors Identified in Malaysian Public University Students: A Remedial Guide

Poor spoken English has been widespread among Malaysian public university students for decades. Many Malaysian students graduate deficient in English and subsequently face an abrupt reality shared by approximately 40,000 jobless fresh graduates each year: oral English proficiency and employability are correlated in Malaysia. The country’s private sector employers have cited poor English as one of the leading reasons for their rejecting applicants. Meanwhile, a limited quantity of articles has been published on Malaysian tertiary students’ salient verbal grammar errors. To identify such errors as a first step towards remediation, an experimental workshop was created at a Malaysian public university. Using an ethnographic qualitative research method over 3 semesters, an aggregate 50-week period, 27 main recurrent spoken grammar errors were detected among 95 Malaysian students, which consisted of 68 undergraduates and 27 postgraduates. This study attempts to provide a relatively explicit identification of chief spoken grammar errors by Malaysian public university students sampled, with example corrections. Core concepts in findings are intended to aid syllabus design and targeted remedial English instruction by Malaysian tertiary and school teachers seeking to more efficiently facilitate student progress, mitigate pressures on learners, and alter the outcomes for as many future Malaysian public university graduates as the findings contained herein may effect.

Reflections on English Speaking Anxiety of Engineering Students: Pilot Project

Human beings scream for effective communication skills in this modern age of space technology. The 21st-century demands the engineering universities to address the speaking skill deficiencies of engineering students. This research discovers factors responsible for English speaking anxiety of engineering students. A qualitative research design was implemented and semi-structured interviews were piloted. A purposive sampling approach was employed.Outcomes revealed engineering students faced hesitation, poor confidence, poor mental approach,poor English, unknown fears, poor vocabulary, dearth of speaking opportunities, fear of criticism,nervousness, stress, lack of motivation, poor communication skill, poor language, and low self-esteem as English-speaking anxiety factors of engineering students. Additionally, they used deep breathing, giving space for thinking and code switch in gas strategies to overcome English-speaking anxiety.

Teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to Saudi Arabian Banking Employees

Globalization in the banking industry has demonstrated one of the most significant necessities of today, English for Specific Purposes (ESP)-based curricula. ESP drives contemporary organizations to communicate effectively with customers, suppliers, and competitors across geographical boundaries. Therefore, it is imperative to examine learners’ needs and difficulties while using ESP in practice to achieve this goal effectively. This study aims to examine the skills of bankers learning or using English as a Second Language (ESL) to assist them in meeting their jobs’ needs in the banking sector. An online survey (n = 43) and interview (n= 39) were employed to collect data to understand the aspects vital to the teaching of ESP among banking professionals from Saudi Arabia. About 60% of the sample admitted they needed to improve their English-speaking skills, with more than 80% citing that it is essential for their profession. The interviewees also highlighted English writing skills as being more critical to their needs and desired to enhance their speaking and writing skills. The interviewees further revealed that poor English, difficulty in understanding accents, and insufficient knowledge of banking terminology hindered their communication with customers. The article suggests pedagogical implications and recommendations to support employers in the banking sector, ESP teachers, and curricula designers for improving the current ESP design and delivery in Saudi Arabia.

Demotivating Factors in Learning English: A Case of Students in Tra Vinh University, Vietnam

The purposes of this study were to investigate the impact of internal and external factors on learners’ demotivation in learning English and if gender affect ed learners’ demotivating factors. The participants include d 100 non-English majors at Tra Vinh university. The questionnaire was the only instrument focus sing on internal and external factors. Th e study showed that internal factors had more impact on learners than external ones . For internal factors, learners were affected by the following items such as unclear study target, not being interested in English, their poor English and not achieving an ideal mark in tests. Concerning external factors, learners were influenced by inexperienced and not easy-going teachers , the overcrowded classroom s , and lack of using multimedia resources. Regarding gender, the finding indicated that there was no relationship between gender and learners’ demotivating factors.

Peer review declaration

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.• Type of peer review: Single-blind• Describe criteria used by Reviewers when accepting/declining papers. Was there the opportunity to resubmit articles after revisions? There are three recommendations as follows: Accept: The article meets the scientific values, original, well-written English, article meets IOP format. Revision Required: The article lacks the scientific values, poor English, article does not meet IOP format. Reject: Articles have been published elsewhere, it lacks clear objectives and novelty, very poor English.• Conference submission management system: https://confbrite.org/2021/msat/kf/z• Number of submissions received: 67• Number of submissions sent for review: 66• Number of submissions accepted: 65• Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted/Number of Submissions Received X 100): (65/67)*100= 97,01%• Average number of reviews per paper: 2• Total number of reviewers involved: 36• Any additional info on review process:- • Contact person for queries: Ivonne M. Radjawane, PhDOceanography Study Program, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha No.10, Bandung 40132, IndonesiaEmail: ivonne@fitb.itb.ac.id, ivonne.radjawane27@gmail.comDr. rer. nat. Rima RachmayaniOceanography Study Program, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesha No.10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia.Email: rrachmayani@oceanography.itb.ac.id, rima.rachmayani@gmail.com

An Investigation into Factors Affecting Hufi Students Poor English Performance: A Case Study of Non-English Major Third-Year Students at Ho Chi Minh University of Food Industry

It is undeniable that most students learning English as a foreign language at universities face many problems. This study was conducted to explore some reasons that impact HUFI students low English Learning. The subjects of this quantitative research were the third-year students in two classes—each respondent listed 10 reasons why students are poor in English performance. The study's findings revealed some primary factors, including firstly, the majority students stated that they were not confident enough to use English in class because of shyness and concern about making mistakes. Second, students lack fundamental knowledge and skills. Third, students do not have opportunities to practise English with native teachers because of big size classes. Fourth, students are not satisfied with some teachers’ teaching methods. Last but not least, students are not well-motivated, encouraged and instructed to apply some effective learning strategies.

Plagiarism detection and prevention: a primer for researchers.

Plagiarism is an ethical misconduct affecting the quality, readability, and trustworthiness of scholarly publications. Improving researcher awareness of plagiarism of words, ideas, and graphics is essential for avoiding unacceptable writing practices. Global editorial associations have publicized their statements on strategies to clean literature from redundant, stolen, and misleading information. Consulting related documents is advisable for upgrading author instructions and warning plagiarists of academic and other consequences of the unethical conduct. A lack of creative thinking and poor academic English skills are believed to compound most instances of redundant and “copy-and-paste” writing. Plagiarism detection software largely relies on reporting text similarities. However, manual checks are required to reveal inappropriate referencing, copyright violations, and substandard English writing.Medical researchers and authors may improve their writing skills and avoid the same errors by consulting the list of retractions due to plagiarism which are tracked on the PubMed platform and discussed on the Retraction Watch blog.

Media students using mobile phones in the Arabian Gulf to improve English writing and video production skills

Purpose A variety of alternate technology-enhanced teaching approaches are now available to university students to broaden their learning experiences and complement conventional face-to-face teaching. This paper aims to outline a study conducted at an English Medium Instruction (EMI) University in the Arabian Gulf where students were studying media. The study explored an innovative teaching approach that sought to enhance the students’ interaction with mobile phone applications as part of their learning experiences during the course. Design/methodology/approach The focus of the study was on enhancing the students’ English writing skills such as vocabulary, spelling and grammar and on improving their technical skills such as in video production. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings The results indicated that mobile phone applications were helpful in improving students’ journalistic writing skills where they had a good level of proficiency in English, more so than students with poor English who are more dependent on traditional learning methods. Students also benefitted from mobile phone video production workshops that were intensive and creative. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes. Originality/value wBased on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes.

Retracted: VR Technology in English Teaching from the Perspective of Knowledge Visualization

VR technology is virtual reality. Most people think that speaking English is the most important language skill, but at the same time speaking English is considered to be the most difficult learning skill. Virtual reality technology, namely VR technology, is a comprehensive information technology, which provides new ideas for English teaching. The purpose of this article is to study the application of VR technology in English teaching. Using the teaching simulation method, we discussed the feasibility of using VR technology to solve the problems of poor oral English, poor English expression ability, and lack of English thinking ability. The analysis technology performs a series of data analysis on the results of the survey data analysis. The analysis of the research results shows that the application of VR video in the educational teaching process not only enriches the teaching form, but also provides a new way of thinking for the teaching and experience of the course. The application of VR technology in actual English teaching not only improve the learner’s learning effect by 45%, and also enhance the modernity and modernization of English teaching activities, effectively achieve the cultivation of students’ comprehensive English quality.

Students' Competence in the TOEFL Structure and Written Expression

This study aims to find out the students' competence in answering questions on TOEFL structure and written expression. It mainly focused on Information and Technology students because the current curriculum in the institution requires them to take TOEFL. Ninety-two students from three different classes participated in this study. Data collection was done by utilizing an adopted test consisting of 40 questions was used. The data shows that the students' competence in the TOEFL structure and written expression is low. It is revealed by observing the mean scores of the students, namely 23.75 (class A), 27.5 (class B), and 42.5 (class C). One of the main reasons to explain this scenario is due to their poor English Grammar. Therefore, the study suggests the students should be guided in learning basic-to-advanced level of English Grammar before introducing them to the TOEFL's structure and written expression.

LINSPECTOR: Multilingual Probing Tasks for Word Representations

Despite an ever-growing number of word representation models introduced for a large number of languages, there is a lack of a standardized technique to provide insights into what is captured by these models. Such insights would help the community to get an estimate of the downstream task performance, as well as to design more informed neural architectures, while avoiding extensive experimentation that requires substantial computational resources not all researchers have access to. A recent development in NLP is to use simple classification tasks, also called probing tasks, that test for a single linguistic feature such as part-of-speech. Existing studies mostly focus on exploring the linguistic information encoded by the continuous representations of English text. However, from a typological perspective the morphologically poor English is rather an outlier: The information encoded by the word order and function words in English is often stored on a subword, morphological level in other languages. To address this, we introduce 15 type-level probing tasks such as case marking, possession, word length, morphological tag count, and pseudoword identification for 24 languages. We present a reusable methodology for creation and evaluation of such tests in a multilingual setting, which is challenging because of a lack of resources, lower quality of tools, and differences among languages. We then present experiments on several diverse multilingual word embedding models, in which we relate the probing task performance for a diverse set of languages to a range of five classic NLP tasks: POS-tagging, dependency parsing, semantic role labeling, named entity recognition, and natural language inference. We find that a number of probing tests have significantly high positive correlation to the downstream tasks, especially for morphologically rich languages. We show that our tests can be used to explore word embeddings or black-box neural models for linguistic cues in a multilingual setting. We release the probing data sets and the evaluation suite LINSPECTOR with https://github.com/UKPLab/linspector .

Investigation on Chinese College Students’ English Expressiveness of Chinese Cultural Vocabulary in Independent College

Basing on Aphasia of Chinese culture in English teaching and learning, this paper investigated Chinese students’ expressiveness of Chinese cultural vocabulary in an independent college by vocabulary translation test. The results indicated that Chinese college students’ expressiveness of Chinese cultural vocabulary was far from satisfactory. After analyzing the reasons for their poor English expressiveness of Chinese words related to Chinese culture, suggestions were also proposed to improve students’ ability to express Chinese culture.

Understanding Second Language Anxiety: Feedback from ESL Learners in TVET

Anxiety in language classrooms has been acknowledged by local scholars as detrimental to Malaysian learners' English proficiency. Part of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions' mission is to provide immediate workforce of holistic and great communicators. However, language learning anxiety lent support to the poor English performance among learners and is misaligned with the vision by the government as stipulated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025 (Higher Education). The blueprint was developed in 2013 to keep the education system in line with the global trends to help prepare Malaysian youth to survive in the rapidly-changing future. One of highlights is the government's aspiration for high bilingual proficiency among the people. Thus, understanding the types of anxiety in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms is pertinent to customised efforts for pedagogical intervention. Adapting the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the current study aims to investigate the factors of learning anxiety in ESL classrooms among 236 respondents from various TVET institutions from the Southern states of Malaysia. The questionnaire was distributed online with the items reflective of three types of anxiety in ESL classrooms: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. Findings of the study indicated that the respondents suffered from anxiety across the components which confirm the perpetual concern by educators over the reasons why most Malaysian learners still grapple with English proficiency despite years of learning it in formal settings. The study also revealed interesting insights from a psychological perspective by reporting constant anxiety about speaking and presenting in the presence of an audience as well as anxiety when receiving negative feedback from teachers and peers. Implications of the study for practice, subsequent research, and policy are presented with some recommendations for future research to mitigate language anxiety in ESL classrooms.

Penyuluhan Bimbingan Jabatan dan Motivasi Kerja – Wednesday Inspiring Bagi Pencari Kerja Pada Dinas Ketenagakerjaan Kota Balikpapan

One of the challenging thing for a job seeker during job interview is the lack of ability in answering the interview questions in English. This is caused not only because the poor English competence but also the poor knwolegde of the common job interview questions during recruitment process. The problem identified in this Community Service Program is the insufficient fund for training program of Balikpapan government, compare to the numbers of the job seeker. Therefore, cooperation with other party such as University to support any types of training program become one of the program that should always be conducted. The next problem identified is related to the lack of coomunication skills among job seeker in Balikpapan which in turn limit their opportunity in securing job especially during interview process that is conducted in English. The problem solving method is conducted in four stages, first is preparation, problem formulation, the training implementation and program evaluation. The result shows that the job seekers feel more confident in facing job interview in English after joining the program, they also expect that the similar program shall be conducted again with a longer duration.

Poor English Skills among Visually Impaired Students, Overall Growth Retardation

The present paper identifies ‘poor English skills’ among visually impaired students as one of the most drastic challenges at the higher education level. It attempts to cogitate on the factors which pave the way for this stark condition. To analyze the causes for this stipulation, two relevant case studies are furnished. An appraisal of these cases facilitates in understanding the downside of the existing systems in schools. The magnitude of the problem advocates intervention at the basic and early levels.