Gamification in E-Learning: game factors to strengthen specific English pronunciation features in undergraduate students at UPTC Sogamoso

Appendix A Characterization survey (104), Appendix B. EFL Students’ questionnaire (109), Appendix C. Characterization survey: data treatment question (113), Appendix D. Informed consent letter, English version (114), Appendix E. Carta de consentimiento informado, versión en español (117), Appendix F. Time Schedule (120), Appendix G. Sample Challenges at Moodle (126), Appendix H. Participants’ questionnaire results (128).La gamificación es un término que suele denotar el uso de componentes del juego en situaciones no relacionadas con el juego en sí para crear experiencias de aprendizaje agradables, divertidas y motivadoras para los estudiantes (Werbach y Hunter, 2012). Por lo tanto, el análisis de los factores básicos de los juegos se convierte en algo esencial a la hora de definir y utilizar la gamificación como estrategia de mediación del inglés como lengua extranjera para fortalecer rasgos específicos de pronunciación en los estudiantes de pregrado de la UPTC Sogamoso. El procedimiento de estudio se basa en la investigación acción mediante la implementación de la estrategia de gamificación para la mediación en la pronunciación del inglés, orientada a treinta estudiantes de diferentes programas de ingeniería, administración y tecnología con niveles heterogéneos de dominio del inglés. Las actividades se centran principalmente en la producción de sonidos, el ritmo, el acento y la entonación, los rasgos de pronunciación segmental y suprasegmental. Los resultados arrojaron una evidente mejora en las características segméntales y suprasegmentales de la percepción en la pronunciación de los participantes así como la contribución del objetivo de los juegos a la instrucción fonética y fonológica, la sensación en el juego a la motivación para mejorar la pronunciación, el reto establecido en los juegos a la actitud positiva de los participantes, y la sociabilidad a la exposición practica de la pronunciación inglesa.Gamification is a relatively new term that often denotes the use of game components in situations unrelated to the game itself to create enjoyable, fun, and motivating learning experiences for students (Werbach and Hunter, 2012). Therefore, analyzing the games' basic factors becomes essential when defining and using gamification as a strategy for English as Foreign Language mediation to strengthen specific pronunciation features in UPTC Sogamoso undergraduate students. The study procedure is based on action research by implementing the gamification strategy for mediation in English pronunciation, oriented to thirty students from different engineering, management, and technology programs at heterogeneous levels of English proficiency. The activities mainly focus on sound production, rhythm, stress, and intonation, segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation features. The results showed an evident improvement in the segmental and suprasegmental features of the participants' pronunciation perception as well as the contribution of game goals to phonetics and phonological instruction, the game sensation to the motivation for pronunciation improvement, the game challenge to the participants' positive attitude, and the sociality to the English pronunciation exposure practice

Expectations eclipsed in foreign language education: learners and educators on an ongoing journey / edited by Hülya Görür-Atabaş, Sharon Turner.

Between June 2-4, 2011 Sabancı University School of Languages welcomed colleagues from 21 different countries to a collaborative exploration of the challenging and inspiring journey of learners and educators in the field of language education.\ud \ud The conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their views on language education. Colleagues met with world-renowned experts and authors in the fields of education and psychology, faculty and administrators from various universities and institutions, teachers from secondary educational backgrounds and higher education, as well as learners whose voices are often not directly shared but usually reported.\ud \ud The conference name, Eclipsing Expectations, was inspired by two natural phenomena, a solar eclipse directly before the conference, and a lunar eclipse, immediately after. Learners and educators were hereby invited to join a journey to observe, learn and exchange ideas in orde

The influence of video games on the acquisition of the english language in an EFL classroom

El uso de los video juegos como herramienta para enseñar inglés es un tema que se ha venido estudiando en la última década debido al interés por mejorar la adquisición de este idioma. Se ha observado que la mayor parte de estudios se enfocan en métodos que pueden ser usados dentro de un aula para adquirir vocabulario; tales como, el uso de redes sociales o la música; sin embargo, se ha prestado poca atención al uso de video juegos como una herramienta útil para el aprendizaje de vocabulario en inglés. Los objetivos de esta síntesis de investigación son analizar los efectos de los video juegos en la adquisición del vocabulario en inglés y las percepciones de profesores y estudiantes sobre su en un aula de inglés como lengua extranjera. Los resultados indican que la motivación y la edad son de mayor influencia en la adquisición de vocabulario. Se encontraron puntos de vista positivos y negativos tanto de profesores como de estudiantes. Estas percepciones pueden ser consideradas para mejorar las estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje a través de esta herramienta dentro del aulaThe use of video games as a tool to teach English is a subject that has been studied in the last decade due to the interest in improving the acquisition of this language. It has been observed that most studies focus on methods that can be used in a classroom to acquire vocabulary; such as the use of social networks or music; however, little attention has been paid to the use of video games as a useful tool for learning English vocabulary. The objectives of this research synthesis are to analyze the effects of video games on the acquisition of vocabulary in English and the perceptions of teachers and students about its use in an English as a foreign language classroom. The results indicate that motivation and age are more influential in vocabulary acquisition. Positive and negative views were found from both teachers and students. These perceptions can be considered to improve teaching and learning strategies through this tool in the classroomLicenciado en Pedagogía del Idioma InglésCuenc

EFL teaching in FPGS (advanced vocational training): the importance of intercultural competence development

In recent times, globalization has led to ever-shrinking boundaries between cultures. This phenomenon has had repercussions in the professional world, where financial, business and trade barriers have been disappearing in favour of a unified and diverse international market. As a result, companies are looking to recruit young talent not only with English proficiency, but also with the ability to function in cross-cultural work environments. This is where education plays a fundamental role, as there is a growing need to train students to develop intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in advanced stages of vocational education, as part of the English subject of their respective module. In response to this need arises this thesis, which incorporates a didactic proposal, whose methodology based on digital resources and communicative approaches tries to make students aware of the importance of ICC, developing it in class in a transversal way.En los últimos tiempos, la globalización ha hecho que las fronteras entre culturas se reduzcan cada vez más. Este fenómeno ha repercutido en el mundo profesional, donde las barreras financieras, de negocios y mercantiles han ido desapareciendo a favor de un mercado internacional unificado y diverso. Como resultado, las empresas buscan incorporar jóvenes talentos, no solo con competencia en inglés, sino con capacidad para desenvolverse en entornos laborales interculturales. Es aquí donde la educación juega un papel fundamental, en tanto que existe una necesidad creciente de formar estudiantes para que desarrollen competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) en etapas avanzadas de Formación Profesional, como parte de la asignatura de inglés de su respectivo módulo. Como respuesta a dicha necesidad surge este TFM, que incorpora una propuesta didáctica, cuya metodología, basada en recursos digitales y aspectos comunicativos, trata de concienciar a los alumnos sobre la importancia de la CCI, desarrollándola en el aula de inglés de manera transversal.Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y LiteraturaMáster en Profesor de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idioma

Exploring the Importance of Play, Motivation, Identity, and Dialect in Arabic Language Learning and Teaching

This portfolio is a compilation of work that the author wrote during her studies in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. During her time in the program, the author also served as an instructor of Arabic at the university and at a local grade school, as well as serving as a teaching assistant. This work is informed by the author’s personal reflections on these experiences in conjunction with her studies. The portfolio consists of three sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives revolve around the author’s beliefs of surrounding the art of teaching a second language. The research perspectives’ section contains two papers written during her coursework in the MSLT program, while the annotated bibliography reviews literature regarding identity in second language acquisition (SLA)

Readings on L2 reading: Publications in other venues 2021-2022

This feature offers an archive of articles published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of Reading in a Foreign Language (RFL). It treats any topic within the scope of RFL and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order, each with a complete reference as well as a brief summary. The editors of this feature attempt to include all related articles that appear in other venues. However, undoubtedly, this list is not exhaustive

The Effects of Anxiety Toward Acehnese Students\u27 English Speaking Ability

In this study, we analyzed the effects of speaking anxiety of Acehnese students in English learning classroom by looking at the causes of students’ speaking anxiety and their strategies in coping with it. The researchers used purposive sampling to select the participants of this research. Ten respondents from sophomore students of Department of the English Education at Teacher Training Faculty of Ar-Raniry State Islamic University in Aceh, Indonesia were selected by identifying their answers of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety questionnaires developed by Horwitz et al. (1986). To have in-depth information on the subject matter, a semi-structured interview was employed. The results of this research showed that speaking anxiety caused some negative effects to Acehnese students’ speaking ability, which could be observed through the difficulties in constructing sentences and expressing the idea when they spoke in the target language. Low self-confidence, lack of competency, and being afraid of making mistakes were some of the factors considered as the major causes of speaking anxiety that could debilitate students’ classroom participation

ESL/EFL Student Anxiety: How Can the Implementation of MMORPGs Help Anxious Students?

Language anxiety is a serious issue for many students wishing to acquire a second or foreign language (L2); it can take many forms and affect many L2 learners in several different ways. The construct of language anxiety is composed of test anxiety, social anxiety, and computer anxiety; past researchers have tried to address the problem of language anxiety through traditional teaching methods employed in ESL/EFL classrooms, however these methods have limitations that can be addressed through the implementation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Given the limitations of the traditional, or non-technical, teaching methods in addressing language anxiety, the present study examines the unique contributions of MMROPGs and CMC by synthesizing the results of previous studies to show how the implementation of MMORPGs and CMC can help alleviate anxiety in language learners. To this end, this paper specifically examines the electronic environment created in MMORPGs and its effect on anxious language learners, as well as what effect synchronous and asynchronous CMC communication strategies have on anxious language learners. The synthesized results show that online communication tools do have positive effects in lowering learner anxiety through several aspects including anonymity, slower conversation pace, and added control. Finally, the study offers a caveat, the online communication tools are not a panacea; there are limitations through competitive anxiety, power distances between cultures, miscommunication, public nature of discussion forums, and lack of intercultural knowledge

EFL Teachers’ Challenges and Insights of Online Teaching amidst Global Pandemic

The unexpected shift of English language teaching from face-to-face classroom interaction to online learning activities using digital platforms has resulted in a number of challenges for English teachers and students. Hence, examining the teachers’ challenges and their insights of the online learning activities is highly required. The present study sheds some light on university EFL teachers’ challenges and insights of online learning activities amidst global pandemic. Drawing on the data collected using self-written reflections and semi-structured interviews from 17 Indonesian EFL teachers, the results revealed that the absence of an e-learning platform, lack of students’ motivation and engagement, and time consuming to prepare online learning materials became the primary challenges of the teachers. The results further portrayed that developing a representative digital platform, designing online learning materials, and improving the quality of teaching method were several valuable insights from the teachers. The results of this study contribute to providing fruitful advices for English teachers, students, and school authorities to enhance the efficacy of online teaching and learning activities, particularly during the global pandemic