Prescriptive Research Articles

Challenges and Solutions in Teaching Writing to Azerbaijani Learners of English

This study explores the challenges and potential solutions in teaching English writing to Azerbaijani learners, focusing on linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical factors that impact writing proficiency. Through a mixed-methods approach involving surveys, interviews, and classroom observations, the research identifies key difficulties such as grammatical errors, rhetorical differences, and the influence of educational practices. The study also highlights effective strategies, including process-oriented writing activities and culturally responsive teaching methods, which enhance both writing skills and learner engagement. Despite the valuable insights, limitations such as sample size and the focus on short-term outcomes suggest the need for further research, particularly in exploring long-term impacts and the role of digital tools in writing instruction.

Microstructure competences and grammatical errors of Danish‐speaking children with developmental language disorder when telling and retelling narratives and engaging in spontaneous language

AbstractBackgroundResearch on the grammatical characteristics of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across languages has challenged accounts about the nature of DLD. Studies of the characteristics of DLD in different languages can reveal which components of DLD emerge irrespective of language and which components are language specific.AimsTo examine the grammatical characteristics of children with DLD acquiring Danish (microstructure and error types) in order to contribute to research on language‐general and language‐specific characteristics of DLD.Methods & ProceduresLanguage samples from two telling narratives, one retelling narrative and one session of semi‐spontaneous talk were collected from 39 Danish‐speaking children aged 5;0–8;6, comprising one group of children with DLD (n = 15) and two control groups (age‐ and language‐matched: n = 15 and = 9, respectively). The data were analysed with reference to microstructure and grammatical errors. The DLD children's performance was compared with that of their peers with typical language development (AM) and to that of a younger group matched on language comprehension (LM). Task effects were also analysed.Outcomes & ResultsA significant group difference in microstructure was present in the results for mean length of utterance (MLU), where the AM group had significant higher MLU compared with the DLD group. Two variables clearly distinguished DLD children from both AM and LM children in terms of errors, namely word order errors and omission errors. The analysis of grammatical errors also revealed that the most salient challenges for Danish‐speaking children with DLD were not clearly morphological in nature. Although the children with DLD, as expected, made more morphological errors compared with the AM group, they did not produce more errors compared with the LM group. Task effects were present for some but not all results.Conclusions & ImplicationsThis research emphasizes the importance of cross‐linguistic comparisons of the linguistic error profiles in the elicited language of children with DLD and the importance of considering the methodological context when analysing the grammatical language abilities of children with DLD. The results are relevant for clinicians and for developing screening tools.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on this subject DLD is characterized by challenges in producing and comprehending language. Ample research is available on English‐speaking children with DLD, and which has reported on challenges acquiring morphology. Studies of children with DLD acquiring other languages than English show challenges related to specific grammatical features of the respective language.What this study adds to the existing knowledge This study is the first to investigate microstructure abilities and grammatical errors produced by Danish‐speaking children with DLD and using different language samples (narrative telling, narrative retelling and spontaneous language). It enhances our knowledge about DLD in Scandinavian languages and cross‐linguistically and reinforces cross‐linguistic findings that grammatical and structural challenges in language acquisition for children with DLD might not be reducible exclusively to morphology. While some components of DLD children's language challenges may appear universal and be attributed to overarching factors other components seem more specific to the structure of the target language. Results from this study additionally draw attention to the importance of considering contextual constraints when investigating productive grammatical abilities in children with DLD.What are the practical and clinical implications of this work? More detailed analysis of grammatical error types seen in children with DLD acquiring languages other than English and of individual differences contribute to clinical advancement in the field. A better insight into grammatical difficulties of Danish‐speaking children with DLD may contribute to improved assessment procedures and planning of therapy for children with DLD.

Linguistic prescriptivism and the language of the laboring poor: The case of will/shall

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the effect of prescriptivism on a part of society – the labouring poor – that has not received as much attention yet. As education was socially stratified during the Late Modern English period, and elementary compulsory schooling was only introduced in 1870, the labouring poor did not receive schooling or alternative training on a regular basis, if at all. It is therefore particularly interesting to find out whether those who were able to write were aware of grammatical rules. In order to shed light on the question whether the laboring poor showed awareness of grammar rules of shall and will, this article investigates the use of these two modal verbs in a corpus of Late Modern English pauper letters. The study reveals that will was used almost categorically in the second- and third-person singular and plural, while shall is used in 65.6% of instances in the first-person singular. Thus, Late Modern English paupers tend to adhere to the grammar rules found in contemporary normative texts in a similar way to writers of the upper social layers. Additionally, certain social factors, e.g. region or addressee, seem to have had some influence on the usage of shall and will.

Understanding the Different Functions of Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs and Related Problems from the Teachers’ Point of View

The process of acquiring grammar requires distinguishing between parts of the sentence, including the verb and the subject, as well as the ability to form the verb and distinguish the best verb forms. This study aims to understand the different functions of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs and the problems related to them. The quantitative descriptive approach was used in this study by using a questionnaire (questionnaire) designed by the researcher to evaluate teachers’ perceptions towards the different functions of transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, and related problems. This study concluded that the main function of transitive and intransitive verbs is to develop the communication process level by guaranteeing delivering the exact correct meaning of sentences. The study also clarified that several difficulties could be faced when distinguishing transitive and intransitive verbs, such as creating incomplete and dysfunctional sentences, making grammatical errors, and generating mistakes in the employment and formulation of these verb types.

The pursuit of ‘true-spelling’ in English: Prescriptivism, standardisation and orthographic variation

ABSTRACT As the vernacular was re-assigned the functions that Latin fulfilled in the Middle Ages, close comparisons between these two languages stressed the urgent need for the standardisation of English. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England saw the rise of codification and prescriptivism, two stages in the standardisation process that succeeded the selection, diffusion and acceptance of certain linguistic forms. A large number of works were published within the umbrella of codification, including grammars, spelling lists, pronouncing dictionaries or linguistic treatises, each targeting different areas of the language. James and Leslie Milroy (2012: 57) claim that ‘just as dictionaries prescribe uniquely correct spellings, so handbooks of usage prescribe uniquely correct grammatical constructions’, thus establishing a parallelism between the two. Most dictionaries published during the Early and Late Modern periods declare themselves prescriptive in their aims to provide the ‘True-spelling’ (Preston 1674: title page) of the English language, as if there was a false or fake alternative, thus vetoing all other orthographic variants. However, there arises an issue in this endeavour: spelling had become widely standardised by the time these dictionaries were available, except for some of the remnants of variation that continue to exist today. This paper addresses the standardisation of colour- and theatre-type words in historical British English for the purpose of assessing the impact that linguistic prescription had, if any, on the speakers’ spelling habits. As a corpus-based study, the analysis relies on a close comparison of usage and precept that draws correspondences between these two dimensions of language.

Epistemic modality and evidentiality in virtual intercultural exchanges between Turkish and Texan users of English

AbstractThis study reports on data from two 6‐week virtual intercultural exchanges (VIEs) between teachers of multilingual learners in K‐12 schools in Türkiye and the United States. Using the data from these asynchronous VIEs, we focus on Turkish world Englishes speakers’ use of epistemic markers and evidentials. We examine how participants from Türkiye use markers of epistemic modality and evidentiality in intercultural encounters and how that use influences their construction of cultural information about Türkiye. Our findings show participants selectively code epistemic modality and evidentiality to indicate (their proximity to) the source of cultural information, avoid potential misunderstanding, and claim responsibility for the factuality of the information shared (or not). Our study contributes to understanding how world Englishes and Intercultural Communication intersect in multilingual contact zones that transcend borders―both real and imagined―between cultures, languages, and nations.

Automatical sampling with heterogeneous corpora for grammatical error correction

Automatical sampling with heterogeneous corpora for grammatical error correction

A Simple Yet Effective Corpus Construction Framework for Indonesian Grammatical Error Correction

Currently, the majority of research in grammatical error correction (GEC) is concentrated on universal languages, such as English and Chinese. Many low-resource languages lack accessible evaluation corpora. How to efficiently construct high-quality evaluation corpora for GEC in low-resource languages has become a significant challenge. To fill these gaps, in this paper, we present a framework for constructing GEC corpora. Specifically, we focus on Indonesian as our research language and construct an evaluation corpus for Indonesian GEC using the proposed framework, addressing the limitations of existing evaluation corpora in Indonesian. Furthermore, we investigate the feasibility of utilizing existing large language models (LLMs), such as GPT-3.5-Turbo and GPT-4, to streamline corpus annotation efforts in GEC tasks. The results demonstrate significant potential for enhancing the performance of LLMs in low-resource language settings. Our code and corpus can be obtained from https://github.com/GKLMIP/GEC-Construction-Framework.

Attitudes toward diverse English accents among Japanese elementary school students

AbstractThis paper explores Japanese elementary school students’ attitudinal responses toward diverse English accents presented in their multimodal course material. In the study, 86 sixth‐grade students (m = 48, f = 38) watched four self‐introduction videos representing Inner Circle and Expanding Circle accent varieties and rated the comprehensibility of each accent using 7‐point Likert‐type scales. In addition, they answered questions about proximity to their own accent and desirability as a learning model. Significant results suggest two major contradictions from previous studies; (1) that the White male American‐English speaker was rated least comprehensible among the four; (2) that the participants did not base their appraisal on closeness to a “native‐speaker” model in evaluating the idealness of an accent as a learning model. Based on the findings, I discuss the possible relationship between extended exposure and enhanced comprehensibility, the absence of “native‐speaker” benchmark among novice learners, and novice learners’ agency as an English user.

Influence of English Language Usage on Students' Academic Performance in Physics in Public Secondary Schools in Rwanda. A Case of Gakenke District

Influence of English Language Usage on Students' Academic Performance in Physics in Public Secondary Schools in Rwanda. A Case of Gakenke District

Enhancing English education with Natural Language Processing: Research and development of automated grammar checking, scoring systems, and dialogue systems

Abstract. In this paper, we investigate the scope for transformational change that these technologies offer to English education. We examine how NLP can support English education through automated grammar checking having students text checked for grammatical errors in real time, automated scoring systems which evaluate written and verbal English against predefined criteria, and dialogue systems which interacts with learners in English to help develop their speaking and listening skills in an engaging and non-judgmental environment. We document the current status of these NLP applications, examine their educational benefits, highlight some of the challenges faced by the technologies and finally discuss the way forward for large-scale adoption of such technologies, bringing the research to a logical conclusion. We hope that this study will provide a comprehensive understanding of how NLP can be employed to transform education in English and also highlight some of the associated challenges and ethical dilemmas.

Lost and found: Investigating a bilingual child’s L1 lexical attrition and recovery

Aims and Objectives: We examined the extent of L1 vocabulary attrition in a Korean child following her relocation to the United States at the age of 6 years 10 months, and the subsequent restoration of her L1 vocabulary upon her return to Korea 10 months later. Methodology: A picture-naming task was administered on a regular basis over a period of several months, beginning shortly after the child’s arrival in the United States. Data and Analysis: The data were analyzed to determine the child’s accuracy in producing common nouns in the L1. Findings/Conclusion: The study shows significant L1 vocabulary attrition after just 1 month, with an inability to access half of the test items after just 4 months and a drop in accuracy to 25% after 9 months. Upon return to Korea, the child’s L1 vocabulary improved rapidly, surpassing English usage within 3 weeks and reaching 82% accuracy within 6 weeks. These findings underscore the vulnerability of children to language attrition in a monolingual environment while also highlighting the remarkable resilience of their L1 skills. Originality: The study traced the child’s L1 decline and recovery in accordance with a strict timetable. By beginning measurements within a week of the child’s exposure to English following her subsequent reintroduction to Korean, the study was able to document the earliest manifestations of lexical attrition, its rapid progression, and its subsequent reversal—a pattern of decline and recovery that is rarely studied in this manner. Significance/Implications: This study contributes to the field by systematically documenting the impact on L1 vocabulary of a sudden change in linguistic environment, providing rare insights into the dynamics of lexical attrition in early bilingualism.

Using Grammarly in Enhancing Students’ Grammatical Accuracy in English Writing: A Case at a Private College in Hanoi

Writing is regarded as a hard-to-deal skill in English, and achieving grammatical accuracy in writing is considered challenging for most English learners. As technologies advance, Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools have increasingly been implemented in English language education to enhance learning outcomes. As an AWE assistant, Grammarly has been found beneficial in improving English learners' writing skills. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using Grammarly in enhancing learners’ grammatical accuracy in writing. The study utilized a case study design with qualitative and quantitative data collected from thirty-two second-year college students. Learners’ writing assignments were analyzed using surface structure taxonomy followed by a survey questionnaire to get quantitative data for the research. Qualitative data was provided through a focus-group interview. The findings revealed a reduction in learners’ grammatical errors after Grammarly intervention and their positive attitude toward using Grammarly to improve their English writing. Afterward, there were several recommendations for teachers to foster their students’ English writing skills.

SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONS AND PRO-FORMS IN CAMEROON FRANCOPHONE ENGLISH

This paper examines the syntactic features of prepositions and pro-forms by Cameroon Francophone English (CamFE) users with a tertiary education level. Written and spoken data were drawn from 95 participants from various domains encompassing administration, education, sports, and politics. A corpus of 136,767 words was built and exploited following the corpus linguistics methodology. The AntConc analytical toolkit was used in sorting out data. Quirk and Greenbaum’s (1973) structural approach to grammar was used as the analytical framework to establish the common core features (CCFs) and the interfered features (IFs). It was found that the English by Francophone Cameroonians is characterised by features that drift away from the common core features. Items were inserted, substituted, anticipated, delayed or clustered. The French language has impacted those features in a considerable degree. The conclusion that is drawn from the analysis is that CamFE is a francophonised non-native variety of English in Cameroon.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0717/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Investigating the Implementation of English as the Medium of Instruction Policy at the Lower Primary Level: A Case of Nyabihu District in Rwanda

This study investigated the implementation and effectiveness of the English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) policy in Rwanda's lower primary education system, specifically from primary one to primary three. The introduction provides a context for Rwanda's language-in-education policy, which mandates English as the primary instructional language. The study aimed to assess whether this policy is followed in practice and to identify challenges and pedagogical practices associated with its implementation. The theoretical framework was based on Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis, emphasizing the importance of using the target language in classroom interactions to aid language acquisition. The research design adopted was a qualitative case study focusing on Nyabihu District, involving a study population of lower primary school teachers and students. Purposive sampling was the method employed in order to use a small population to gain a thorough understanding of the case. Teachers with at least two years of experience in the classroom were used in the study. The researcher needed teachers who were familiar with the language policy of instruction in Rwandan schools and had firsthand experience with the phenomenon, so this was necessary. The study involved 75 participants in total, including 25 teachers and 50 students or pupils. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews, and analysis of policy documents. Data analysis revealed a significant gap between the theoretical policy and actual classroom practices. Despite the policy, teachers frequently used both Kinyarwanda (L1) and English (L2) in their instruction due to students' limited English proficiency. The study identified several challenges, including lack of policy enforcement, the monolingual nature of classrooms, and teachers' preference for using the Rwandan language. Common pedagogical practices included safe talk, code-switching, simultaneous use of both languages, and translation. Key findings indicated that the EMI policy is not strictly adhered to in practice, and several factors hinder its effective implementation. The study recommends stricter policy enforcement, improvements in English language instruction, increased use of L1 as the medium of instruction, and the creation of an English-friendly learning environment to enhance English usage at the lower primary level. The study's findings provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers, highlighting the need for practical solutions to address the challenges of implementing EMI in Rwanda's lower primary education system.

A bluffer’s guide to academic literacies: can we communicate a complex set of ideas in simpler terms?

I have often felt sceptical about the idea of academic literacies (AL), which presents a highly influential account of ‘how students learn to write at university’ (Lea and Street, 1998). AL theory has had a significant impact on the field, but some things about it bother me. Key ideas are frequently expressed in very abstract terms (it is hard to justify this comment in an academic context, but bear with me). Research has recognised difficulties in outlining AL’s core principles to students (Lea, 2016, p.91), and ‘the exact nature of the relationship between [its component] approaches’ (Hilsdon, Malone and Syska, 2019). It can be hard to convert the lofty AL aims of emancipation or transformation into practice. As theories go, it clearly thinks of itself as on ‘the right side of history’, and perhaps it is. However, having recently spent time wrangling with AL literature, I have developed more of a (grudging) respect for its insights and possible uses in practice. Drawing on theoretical writing and case studies of AL in use, this session aimed to identify the AL insights which are most relevant for the day-to-day practice of Learning Developers and present them in more concrete terms. In doing so, I hope to make this theory ‘meaningful, relevant and accessible to all’ (for Hockings’ definition of ‘inclusive’, see Hockings, 2010, p.1). After brief comments on its context and aims, I presented a short series of my ‘translations’ from AL into everyday English for use in everyday Learning Development practice.

ANALISIS KESALAHAN KALIMAT BAHASA INDONESIA PADA BERITA TRIBUN-TIMUR.COM

This research is a qualitative research that aims to describe Indonesian sentence pattern errors, Indonesian diction errors in online media news Tribun-Timur.com. The data in the research are news sentences containing Indonesian sentence pattern errors and Indonesian diction errors. The data source of this research is news published by Tribun-Timur.com online media published in its portal in the period August to November 2023. The results of this study show that: Indonesian sentence pattern errors on Tribun-Timur.com news, including Subject Errors, namely subject errors that do not match the number, wrong word selection, grammatical conformity errors; Predicate Errors in Tribun-Timur. Object Errors, which are discrepancies between the subject and predicate in a sentence; Object Errors, which are discrepancies in the type of nouns, discrepancies in the number of nouns, discrepancies in the use of object pronouns, and discrepancies in prepositions; Description Errors, which are discrepancies in time, discrepancies in place, discrepancies in manner, discrepancies in intensity level, and discrepancies in order; Complementary errors, namely mismatch of complement type, mismatch of complement number, mismatch of conjunction, mismatch of complement meaning, and mismatch of complement phrase; and Indonesian diction errors on Tribun-Timur. com news, namely the use of words that are not in accordance with the value of taste, the use of words through language styles that create nuances of negative ideas, and the use of words that cause ambiguity.

A Comparative Study on ERNIE Bot 4.0 Turbo and ChatGPT 4o’s Performance in Evaluating First-Year Undergraduate Persuasive Essays

This study compares the performance of two prominent AI language models, ERNIE Bot 4.0 Turbo and ChatGPT 4o, in evaluating first-year undergraduate persuasive essays within the social sciences domain. Drawing from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, a comprehensive collection of academic writings by British and American university students, this study aims to examine the models’ capabilities in assessing the grammatical correctness, vocabulary usage, coherence, content depth, and writing style of the essays. This study adopts a structured evaluation framework based on IELTS writing criteria to assess the models’ performance. A 40 persuasive essays from the Louvain Corpus were evaluated by both AI models and compared with human raters’ evaluations to ensure validity. The findings reveal distinct differences in the assessment styles of the two models. ChatGPT 4o exhibits a more critical approach, pinpointing areas for improvement, such as lack of argument development, coherence issues, and grammatical errors. Conversely, ERNIE Bot 4.0 Turbo offers a more balanced assessment, acknowledging essays’ strengths and suggesting improvement areas. Notably, ERNIE Bot’s evaluation highlights potential biases in AI-based assessment systems, particularly in its unequal emphasis on viewpoints. This comparative examination offers valuable perspectives on the advantages and constraints of AI models in assessing scholarly compositions, underscoring the significance of amalgamating varied AI functionalities to establish more all-inclusive and efficient feedback systems for learners. By understanding these differences, researchers and educators can better utilize AI-assisted essay evaluation systems to enhance student learning experiences.

Understanding the Importance of Email Etiquette and Addressing Email Communication Challenges Among BTVI Students

Email serves as a communication channel for students in higher educational institutions to interact with teachers on course materials, assignments, and impending tests and seek guidance on personal or academic concerns. The present research examines student-instructor email communication, explicitly identifying the problematic elements in students' emails that hinder effective communication. The study examines a sample of 50 email communications composed and sent by first-year students to their instructors at Bright Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) in Kurdistan. Textual analysis is a valuable method for investigating research inquiries across several disciplines. The study findings demonstrated that informal aspects of student email exchanges include the usage of slang, overuse of capitalization, unconventional spelling, symbols, and emoticons. Lack of adherence to email etiquette norms and grammatical errors. These elements indicate a need for more understanding of formality, professionalism, and the decorum expected in a university atmosphere. Thus, it is advisable to implement pedagogical intervention to develop the necessary abilities for composing and comprehending emails. Providing education and assistance on the protocols and norms of email communication may enhance students' capacity to effectively and professionally interact via email in (BTVI), hence fostering good practices and increasing future employment prospects.

AI versus human effectiveness in essay evaluation

The evaluation of student essay corrections has become a focal point in understanding the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. This study aims to assess the accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of ChatGPT's essay correction compared to human correction, with a primary focus on identifying and rectifying grammatical errors, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, coherence, relevance, essay structure, and clarity. The research involves collecting essays from 100 randomly selected university students, covering diverse themes, with anonymity maintained and no prior corrections by humans or AI. An analysis sheet, outlining linguistic and informational elements for evaluation, serves as a benchmark for assessing the quality of corrections made by ChatGPT and humans. The study reveals that ChatGPT excels in fundamental language mechanics, demonstrating superior performance in areas like grammar, spelling, sentence structure, relevance, and supporting evidence. However, thematic consistency remains an area where human evaluators outperform the AI. The findings emphasize the potential for a balanced approach, leveraging both human and AI strengths, for a comprehensive and effective essay correction process.