Flipgrid and Second Language Acquisition Using Flipgrid to Promote Speaking Skills for English Language Learners

Integrating twenty-first century skills within the classroom has become a global driving force within the educational field. While schools have adopted models of one-to-one technology or digital formats for native English speakers, addressing the twenty-first century skills for English language learners have been absent. Given that the present global society is driven on bilingualism and multilingualism, English language learners need to be given the equitable digital opportunity to build their twenty-first century skills. The purpose of this mixed methods research study is to explore the influence and use of the digital application, Flipgrid, on the oral, English development for foundational, beginning, English language learners. Students completed four Flipgrid videos, with each video increasing in the level of complexity and difficulty, as measured by Bloom’s (1984) taxonomy, and decreasing the level of scaffold and support the students received. Students’ recorded Flipgrid videos were assessed through the speaking rubric as designed by WIDA, and the data was triangulated with an outside ESL teacher. The results revealed that the use of digital video applications can increase student second language acquisition fluency when presented with proper scaffolds and supports. It was concluded that digital video applications do not replace physical scaffolds, and scaffolds should not be pulled from students unless prepared, presented, and practiced

Textbook Evaluation of English for Academic Purposes by British Council

The present study evaluates the course book English for Academic Purposes recommended by British Council in Pakistan. It is a collaborated effort of British Council and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to enhance the English language skills of Pakistani students. The researcher has evaluated the effectiveness of this book that is it fulfilling the theoretical needs of International standards? Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) of Learning Domains is used because it is most appropriate for the evaluation the textbooks. The researcher has evaluated the course book on different levels e.g. cognitive, affective and psycho-motor with the help of Blooms taxonomy. This is a qualitative research basically though the frequencies of the certain words (verbs) are also find out. The researcher has used find out that which areas of learning process are focused and which are ignored in the textbook. The research is important as it will find out the strapping as well as frail areas of the course book and this information may be helpful for the improvement of the course book. Moreover this research has opened new horizons for further studies in the field of textbook evaluation

SoC Software Components Diagnosis Technology

A novel approach to evaluation of hardware and software testability, represented in the form of register transfer graph, is proposed. Instances of making of software graph models for their subsequent testing and diagnosis are shown.Comment: 4 page

Autonomous Learners’ Metacognitive Awareness Development with the Help of Trello Board

[EN] This article focuses on the necessity and inevitability of organization of ESL students’ self-work with the help of free online platform Trello Board. The authors point out that the use of such information and communication technology as Trello Board increases learners’ metacognitive awareness of self-regulation and self-assessment in ESL. The authors also indicate the facilitation of active feedback between ESL learners and their instructor as well as peer-review. The authors share their experience of the use of Trello Board in the educational ecosystem of Bolashak Academy in Kazakhstan. According to the authors, Trello Board provides a broad range of features to control students, maintain their level of motivation, and develop their collaboration in various project works or academic writing tasks.  http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Kalizhanova, A.; Ibrayeva, B.; Ishmuratova, M. (2018). Autonomous Learners’ Metacognitive Awareness Development with the Help of Trello Board. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 55-62. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.7633OCS556

The Effects of Differentiated Instruction on Students’ Language Attitude and Critical Thinking in an ESL Context

Acknowledging the inevitable differences between learners in terms of learning capabilities, readiness, and aptitudes, some educators have strived for a more responsive teaching practice. The approach, which is labelled differentiated instruction, aims to help teachers to accommodate all types of learning needs in a single classroom. The present study investigates the effects of an English language module developed using the differentiated instruction framework in an ESL (English as a Second Language) context in Malaysia. Much of the impetus to integrate differentiated instruction as a teaching framework in the Malaysian classroom stems from the requirement for differentiated teaching as stated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, a Ministry of Education’s document seeking to improve the country’s education system. The study was designed to promote evidence-based classroom practice in Malaysia by developing a differentiated teaching module and measuring its effects on students from an intact classroom of 16-year-old students at a government-funded school. The research design was facilitated by the mixed methods approach; the data collection was conducted through pre- and post-tests and later through a series of semi-structured interviews. Prior to the intervention period, the study began by developing a differentiated lesson checklist based on the literature. The differentiated module was then created in accordance with the national curriculum and the student-participants’ language learning style preferences and implemented for 13 weeks. The first part of the data collection and analysis measured the student-participants’ language attitude and critical thinking through pre- and post-tests. The two-tailed paired-samples t-test on language attitude suggested that the participants scored significantly higher in the post-test with a large effect size (d=0.89). On measuring critical thinking, it was also revealed that the participants scored significantly higher in the post-test but with a medium effect size (d=0.58). Meanwhile, the interview data were discussed around three main themes: a) similarity and differences between differentiated instruction and conventional teaching approach, b) impact of differentiated instruction on students’ language attitude and critical thinking, and c) future of differentiated instruction in Malaysia. The study suggested positive effects albeit of varying degrees on students’ language attitude and critical thinking with encouraging feedback from both teacher and students. The effects concurred with previous studies in that differentiated instruction had induced autonomous learning experience and it resulted in a student-centred classroom. The findings were in line with the government’s vision for the education sector, suggesting the possibility for further similar studies to be carried out gradually across the nation to increase the generalizability of the reported findin

Validation of an online questionnaire of vocabulary learning strategies for ESL learners

This article reports on the updating and validation of a questionnaire for vocabulary learning strategies. An English as a second language (ESL) version of the Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire (VLQ), first published in Gu and Johnson (1996), was created based on its latest version. Two response formats were piloted, that is, a paper version with a 7-point Likert scale and an online version with a 100-point slider bar. A series of validation procedures resulted in a 62-item instrument which was then administered online among 682 English language learners at the tertiary level in China. The paper presents evidence of content validity, construct validity, internal consistency reliability, and predictive validity. It also provides suggestions for interpreting and using the questionnaire for both research and instructional purposes

‘Zoom’ing into MUET Students' Perception in Writing Skills Through Online Cooperative Learning

Technology and the internet has been used as an educational platform for years. Due to the pandemic learning online has become part of the norms. This study explored the use of cooperative learning by using the feature of breakout room in Zoom application towards Malaysian University English Test (MUET) students’ writing skills. Besides this study investigates students’ perception towards online cooperative learning methods. This study uses case study research design. There were 18 students chosen as a sample of this study who were from a secondary school in Malaysia that at the pre-university level (19 years old) which have never tried breakout room features in Zoom application but all of them are digital literate. The participants underwent six sessions of online cooperative learning treatment. Participant journals and individual interviews were used to collect data which highlighted their opinion on these methods and also the challenges that they were facing while using this platform. Findings reveal that the participant had positive perception towards online cooperation learning via breakout room in zoom application for writing skills. Another implication that can be derived from this study is that even in virtual classroom cooperative learning improves the participants’ social and problem solving skills. Thus, online cooperative learning is recommended to improve MUET students and it is aligned with Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) to promote student centered learning and create critical thinking students

EXPLORING CRITICAL READING EXPERIENCE IN ENGLISH OF EMIRATI 11th GRADE STUDENTS

This study aimed at exploring the critical reading experiences of Emirati 11th-grade students in public high schools. A sequential explanatory mixed-method design was used to answer the five research questions posed in this study. In this study, data were collected in two consecutive phases and used different instruments including a questionnaire, classroom observation, and a semi-structured interview. In the first phase of the study, a total number of 11th-grade students (n=645) participated by filling a questionnaire about their critical reading experiences. The second phase of the study featured an in-depth investigation of the teachers’ and students’ views about critical reading practices by means of interviews (n=10) and classroom observations. The results of this study revealed that there is a consistency among students’ self-reporting, students’ views, and classroom observations. The two phases of the study provided evidence that the students use basic critical reading skills and they do not use higher-order critical reading skills. The results also showed that English teachers used different reading strategies and activities, the majority of these practices engaged lower-order thinking skills that only required knowledge recognition and identification of factual details. Both teachers and students’ views corroborated that the English curriculum used is not flexible and lacks a fundamental English literature component and the curriculum assessment is based on teaching to the test. Finally, several challenges that hinder the use of critical reading were expressed by teachers and students alike. These included lack of time, lack of resources, low language competency, low motivation level, lack of curriculum choices, and the teachers were constrained by the curriculum. The study recommends a general reconceptualization of English curriculum contents, curriculum assessment, and teaching strategies with regard to critical reading

Rhetorical style across cultures: an analysis of metadiscourse markers in academic writing of Thai and Malaysian students

It is believed that students from different societies and cultural background have their own preferred rhetorical style of interaction. In writing, such distinctive preference is usually exhibited through the use of linguistic features, of which metadiscourse (MD) markers are considered as one of the signposts to the interpretation of writing style preferences. This study aims to investigate the use of interactional metadiscourse (MD) features and its relevance to the rhetorical style preferences in academic writing of Thai and Malaysian master’s students. Using Hyland’s (2005) taxonomy, their thesis discussions were manually analysed in terms of interactional MD markers to determine their frequency of occurrence and to relate the results to the rhetorical styles of writing preferred by each group of students. The analysis revealed that of all five types of interactional MD features, hedges were the most frequently used device followed respectively by boosters, attitude markers, engagement marker and self-mention. In terms of the rhetorical style of writing, the frequency of MD features suggests that tentative and indirect statements, reader-responsibility, distant-relationship between writer and readers, and less writer-involvement in the texts were the preferred rhetorical styles of interaction of both Thai and Malaysian students. The writing conventions and rhetorical styles of the students can be explained from a sociocultural point of view that they are relevant to the oriental style of interaction from which both groups of students originated. The study draws attention to the pedagogical implications that students in Thai and Malaysia should be given more instructional focus on how to utilize MD features in making academic writing more persuasive and interactive