Saudi EFL Students Research Articles

Syntactic and Semantic Functions of Deictic Expressions in EFL Saudi Students' Writing

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the ability of EFL Saudi students of Department of English Language and Literature at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University to use deictic expressions in their writing from a semantic perspective. To achieve this aim, the sample of the study was all level five male students majoring in English and studying the semantics course 363 at the English Department of Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in summer 2014. The sample consisted of 18 B.A students. All of them belonged to the same homogeneous group since they all belonged to the same level (level 5). To collect the data, the students were assigned a writing test for this study at the very last session of the course. The students were asked to write a topic of 150 words about a place they know, and a person who attends this place. They were inquired to use as much as they can of deictic expressions they have studied in their semantics course. Data were analyzed by using mean scores, standard deviation, t-test and covariance. The findings data analysis revealed that EFL Saudi students were capable to use the target deictic expressions more in syntactic functions than in semantic functions. The results also indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the subjects' representation of the deictic expressions in the syntactic functions and the semantic functions.

The Perceptions of Saudi EFL English-Major Students of the Impact of Video Materials on the Improvement the Listening Skill

The study attempted to explore the EFL Saudi university students’ perceptions of the impact of video material on their listening skill. More specifically, the study attempts to answer the following primary question; “To what extent do Saudi EFL students perceive that video integration in listening classrooms is effective on their listening comprehension level?” The sample of the study consisted of 18 male students majoring in English, between 18-20 years old, enrolling in English 044 course for the listening and speaking skills during the first semester of 2014. They were studying at the English Department of College of Languages and Translation at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The instruments of the study included a close-ended questionnaire, and open-end question in which the respondents were asked to write a short paragraph expressing their preferences to either video utilization or audio usage. The SPSS program was used for data analysis of the close-ended questionnaire, namely T-test, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviations were calculated to analyze the study participants’ responses to the questionnaire items. Quantitative analysis was also used to interpret the study participants’ responses to the open-ended question. The results of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the subjects’ perceptions of videos and audios integration in the listening skill in favor of videos utilization. The quantitative analysis revealed that students were more interested in learning to listen with videos rather than learning with audios. Recommendations were stated for researchers, teachers of English, stakeholders, and educational institutions in Saudi Arabia.

The Role of National Conversation Forums ( NCFs ) in Developing Critical Speaking Skills of EFL University Students

T his quasi-experimental study of one group design attempted to explore how far National Conversation Forums (NCFs ) – as a proposed teaching strategy – can develop EFL university students’ critical speaking skills. It investigated how the discussion of social issues in well-organized forums with specific ethos and ethics in university campus can tackle divergent perspectives, conflicting views and diverse positions in reasoned discourse. Nine Saudi EFL students at KKU, Saudi Arabia constituted the participants of the study. Data was collected from one source: a public speaking test for assessing critical speaking skills. The findings revealed a positive significant impact of NCFs on developing critical speaking skills in social issues-based language contexts. The study includes insights into how to cultivate critical speakers , including the procedures and steps that could be incorporated in EFL university education program.

The Problem of Translating the Prepositions at, in and on into Arabic: An Applied Linguistic Approach

Background : Prepositions pose major problems when translated from English into Arabic. The accurate mappings between English-Arabic prepositions are sometimes very difficult to determine by Arab learners. Aims: This study is designed to identify the difficulties of translating the English prepositions at , in and on , which Saudi EFL students may face when translating them into Arabic. The purpose was to determine which type of the two sexes (males or females) can translate these three prepositions better. Methods: Fifty (50) Saudi EFL students (25 males, 25 females) were asked to translate twenty (20) sentences and phrases on English prepositions at , in , and on into Arabic. Conclusions: Findings revealed that Saudi EFL students face problems related to use and usage when transferring simple prepositions from English into Arabic. Significant differences related to the performances of both males and females where females scored higher marks than those scored by the males. These findings suggest that acquired skills and abilities involved in translation appear to be more strongly activated in the English-Arabic tasks in women as compared to men.

Strategies Used by Saudi EFL Students to Determine the Meaning of English Words

This study investigated the strategies which first-year Saudi university EFL students used to derive the meaning of unfamiliar words while reading English texts. Using cluster sampling method, participants chosen to be included in the study consisted of six male and six female classes (120 male and 120 female students) of the preparatory year deanship students at King Saud University, 2009-2010. Following the administration of a vocabulary test as the instrument, descriptive statistics and ANOVA tests were used to analyze the collected data. Results revealed that the students were weak in using the right strategies in guessing the meaning of unknown vocabulary. The use of a combination of two or more strategies was found to result in a better correct guessing rate, but few students tended to use this technique. The results support the importance of practical training in when and how to use various strategies: students need to be given regular practice in order to learn how to use them most effectively. Highlighting the main strategies which students use to correctly derive the meaning of words, the findings indicate EFL teachers should train their students in the use of a variety of strategies for guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words.

From Call to Mall: The Effectiveness of Podcast on EFL Higher Education Students’ Listening Comprehension

Despite recognition that language can best be learned in an authentic context, and a growing emphasis on the importance of using technology to improve listening skills, only limited research in this area exists in a Saudi context. To add to this research, this quantitative study examines the influence of podcasting on the listening comprehension of 46 female Saudi EFL students in higher education. The randomly selected participants were divided into two groups: a control and an experimental group, and given a six week treatment. A T-test and questionnaire were employed, and the results indicate significant differences between the two groups, favoring the experimental group.

Developing Speaking and Writing Skills of L1 Arabic EFL Learners through Teaching of IPA Phonetic Codes

This exploratory study investigated the development of speaking and writing skills of L1 Arabic EFL learners based on their level of perception and understanding of phonetic transcriptions through visualisation of letter-to-symbol representations using the International Phonetic Alphabet (henceforth IPA). The participants were 169 University-level Preparatory Year Program (PYP) male Saudi EFL students. The study was carried out as a pedagogical approach to improve university first year students’ pronunciation, correct speech and writing skills. The students selected attended 6, 50-minute Integrated Pronunciation Teaching (IPT) lessons which included IPA transcription codes using both audio and visual teaching methods in addition to one ICT aided lesson. Throughout those lessons, students were initially introduced to the IPA phonetic codes in gradual increase of difficulty and were encouraged to use the monolingual (English-English), Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE). Two written tests and one oral test were conducted using a number of carefully selected IPA transcription codes related questions and results were analysed and interpreted. Results obtained showed slight variations between higher and lower ability students in understanding the IPA transcription codes. As a whole, however, the results indicated that students reached a high level of understanding of letter-to-symbol representations – the IPA system - and oral test results proved that phonological awareness can help Saudi students at tertiary level education improve their writing and speaking skills. Above all, learning the phonetic transcription codes helped them develop a sense of autonomy and competence when using monolingual dictionaries. The study concluded with a brief discussion of the ramifications of the study and the potential for further research.

A Study of Dictionary Use by Saudi EFL Students at Qassim University

<p>Dictionaries are an indispensable tool for learning a foreign language in general. Dictionaries provide students with valuable information in all aspects of language. They include phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic information in addition to etymological and usage information. Unfortunately, there is currently a paucity of research on dictionary use by EFL learners and very little is known about the behavior and preferences of dictionary users and the complex operation involved in a dictionary consultation. The main objective of this study is to identify types of dictionaries used by Saudi students, the frequency of dictionary use, and the lexical information examined while using a dictionary. Two data-collection instruments were used in this study, namely a questionnaires and interviews. The results of the questionnaire show that Saudi students do not take full advantage of the different dictionaries available, and that they are not trained on how to make full use of the dictionaries. For example, most of them pay attention only to the definition or meaning of a word while neglecting the pragmatic aspect of the word, collocations as well as word formation knowledge. Results also indicated the superiority of the e-dictionary over the other types of dictionaries. Another more important finding was that participants favored bilingual dictionaries over monolingual dictionaries particularly when finding meaning of unknown words. Other information such as pronunciation, usage, and examples was of secondary importance. The final conclusion reached reported some difficulties that the students face when they use dictionaries. The results suggest that failure to locate the right entry is a common problem among Saudi EFL students. The implications of these and other findings are discussed and suggestions made regarding the importance of teaching dictionary skills in educational settings.<em></em></p>

Language Learning Strategy Use of Saudi EFL Students in an Intensive English Learning Context

This study investigates the type and frequency of language learning strategies used by Saudi EFL students. The subjects were 701 male and female Saudi EFL students enrolled in an intensive English language program at the University of Ha’il. The Oxford Strategies Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) was used with some modifications. The study seeks to extend our knowledge by examining the relationship between the use of language learning strategies (LLS) and gender and proficiency level. The results revealed that the students used language learning strategies with low to medium frequency. They preferred to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies the most, whereas they showed the least use of affective strategies and memory strategies. The findings of the study showed that there was no significant gender difference in the use of language learning strategies except for social strategies, as where females reported using them significantly more than males. Female students also tend to use overall language learning strategies more often than males. Moreover, the results revealed that highly proficient students used all six categories more than low-proficiency students. The paper concludes by recommending that more training should be given in using all strategies by embedding them in regular classroom activities. Suggestions are offered for future research.

Vocabulary Discovery Strategy Used by Saudi EFL Students in an Intensive English Language Learning Context

This study examines the preferred vocabulary discovery strategies (VDS) of Saudi EFL students enrolled in an intensive English language programme at the University of Ha’il in Saudi Arabia. A sample of 746 male and female students participated in the study. The data collection was carried out through a questionnaire. The collected data were computed and analysed via descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way repeated measure ANOVA. The results revealed that the students reported using different VDSs. The data analysis showed that social and skipping strategies are the most used strategy categories, while guessing and dictionary strategies were used less frequently. The results also showed that females use all the strategies more frequently than males, and there was a statistically significant difference in guessing and skipping strategy use by females. Females also used social and dictionary strategies more than males according to mean differences; however, there was no statistically significant difference. This paper discusses the implications of the findings and some pedagogical considerations for teaching and learning vocabulary within an EFL context.

Developing Saudi EFL Students’ Oral Skills: An Integrative Approach

This study investigates the problems of EFL/ESL university students’ unwillingness to speak and take part in class discussions. Saudi students find it inappropriate to speak in class because of their fear to be seen as verbally challenging their teachers' views openly and publicly. Even when they do, they speak a little. This leads to frustration on the side of the teacher, in addition to the absence of any clear feedback from the students: whether they have/have not under­stood the lecture. The study proposes an integrative approach addressing this problem by integrating all the four communication skills, in addition to the sociolinguistic factor. It has been conducted at the English Department, Qassim University, KSA. The results show that the students have exhibited a considerable improvement in the oral skills. In short, the integrative approach procedure has been generally useful in overcoming those hurdles of students' reticence to communicate, participate, and interact with one another in class discussions.

A Study of Students and Teachers' Preferences and Attitudes towards Correction of Classroom Written Errors in Saudi EFL Context

It is no doubt that teacher written feedback plays an essential role in teaching writing skill. The present study, by use of questionnaire, investigates Saudi EFL students' and teachers' preferences and attitudes towards written error corrections. The study also aims at identifying the difficulties encountered by teachers and students during the feedback process. The questionnaire findings reveal that both teachers and students have positive attitudes towards written error correction. The study also shows that while teachers and students share such common preferences as the importance of error correction and the types of errors, there are considerable discrepancies as to the techniques of error correction. For instance, students favor the overall correction, whereas most teachers do not. However, the results show that students prefer teacher correction to peer and self-correction. Moreover, both the teachers and students have encountered a number of difficulties, so suggestions have been investigated so as to deal with the problems.

Saudi EFL students’ reading interests

This study investigates the reading interests of Saudi EFL teacher–college students’ reading interests in English, the obstacles hindering their reading efforts, the persons who help them choose their reading materials, the factors which determine their choice of reading materials and the reasons why they read. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire returned by 460 respondents revealed that the students have a wide range of reading interests, the top of which are stories, adventure books, books about religion, magazines about the internet, newspaper world events, magazines about computer, magazines about new advances in technology, sports magazines, newspaper local interests, newspaper sports sections, books about the internet, picture magazines, books about computers, novels, poetry, and plays. On the other hand, they are found to dislike books about economics. The findings also showed that the obstacles that hinder their reading efforts are rare visits to the library, inability to get books quickly, unavailability of reading materials, time constraints, lack of local libraries, beliefs of having better things to do than reading, difficulty of reading materials provided by English departments, beliefs that improving reading is not as important as improving other language skills, beliefs that there is no relationship between reading and other language skills, and lack of family interests in reading. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the student choose their reading materials by interest, teacher’s request, the main character, length, literary quality, and cost. They also showed that the students read for improving their language, learning something, improving their academic achievements, keeping in touch with the local, economic, cultural, scientific, and political developments, improving their local status, keeping in touch with what is happening around the world, and entertainment. In addition, the students depend on themselves, their teachers, and their friends for choosing their reading materials.

The acquisition of temporal conjunctions by Saudi Arabian learners of English1

Eighty Saudi EFL students were assessed on their understanding of English temporal conjunctions (TCs) and on the effect of the sentence position of the temporal subordinate clause (initially or finally) on such acquisition. The combined performance of the experimental groups did not show any significant difference between TCs indicating sequence and simultaneity. TCs were categorized according to their relationship in time with the main clause event: e.g., FIRST TCs indicate that the main clause event occurs before that in the temporal clause. Responses over the semantic categories of the TCs varied: SECOND and SAME TIME were more difficult than FIRST. The subjects’performance on individual conjunctions within these semantic categories also varied. Similar to the performance for the control group of native speakers, it was found that before (FIRST), after (SECOND), and when2, while, and as (SAME TIME) were the least difficult conjunctions within these categories for the EFL learners by a significant amount. It was also found that whenever1 and directly (SECOND) and now that2 and whenever2 (SAME TIME) were the most difficult conjunctions for the EFL learners. Weak evidence of transfer (positive and negative) was observed in the data. The experimental and control groups gave similar performances for the conjunctions in the SAME TIME category. The EFL learners performed better on temporal clauses which occurred initially in the sentence than on those which occurred finally. The results also showed that these learners, in processing the temporal conjunctions, faced problems similar to those of L1 learners.

Discourse structure and comprehension

Recent discourse analysis has recommended the teaching of discourse through coherence procedure, such as conjunctions. This paper compares procedures with cohesion procedures with regard to their ease of comprehension. Suggestions are made for a model of discourse comprehension and tested experimentally. Ten different cloze procedures were constructed by the deletion of five kinds of grammatical categories. Coherence procedures were identified with nouns, verbs and conjunctions. Cohesion procedures were identified with pronouns and articles. The tests were administered to 40 Saudi EFL students and to 15 British L1 students. Inference of the deleted categories followed the same order for both groups: articles, pronouns, nouns and conjunctions. The results broadly confirmed the predictions of the model.