7,539 research outputs found

    Language and Content-Subject Teacher Issues across CLIL in the Maritime Studies Field: A Project Experience within the New European Framework

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    This study presents the main theoretical and practical issues raised in the implementation process of a CLIL Project with undergraduate students at the Faculty of Nautical Sciences of the University of Cádiz (Spain) in the academic year 2009-2010 by a teachers' interdisciplinary innovation research team. The underlying hypotheses of this study are, firstly, that the content greatly determined which communicative competence would be more interesting and beneficial to gain rather than vice versa in a CLIL programme. Secondly, this analysis aims at exploring how certain underlying assumptions in the planning of CLIL methodology cannot be taken for granted. Finally, results also highlight that Content-Language Integrated programmes are a sharing information platform for converging the needs of the language teacher and the content-subject teacher in the European Higher Education Area

    New directions in learning, teaching and assessment for phonetics

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    This paper gives an account of a series of grant-funded initiatives at UCL over the last four years, developing innovations in the teaching, learning and assessment of phonetics within a university context. The first project set out to investigate the value of computers and other IT equipment (such as wireless microphones) applied within small-group advanced practical training, and demonstrated considerable benefits in flexibility, as well as suggesting new perspectives on the interface between phonetics teaching and research. Next, the PHONLINE project is outlined, which we believe to be the first comprehensive attempt to develop an online distance course making available most of the elements of established oncampus phonetic training within a VLE. This project showed how the interactive online mode of presentation encourages the inclusion of research findings even in a foundation-level syllabus and led to further work, now in progress, aiming to develop opportunities for greater interactivity and particularly to explore the use of further audio tools (such as VoIP), both within and in parallel to the VLE, to achieve this. In a final section, we point out that developments in teaching and learning need to be matched by corresponding innovation in assessment, and report a project concerned with providing a background for the development of meaningful and efficient assessments in phonetics, with a survey of assessment types against a conceptual framework from educational theory.This paper gives an account of a series of grant-funded initiatives at UCL over the last four years, developing innovations in the teaching, learning and assessment of phonetics within a university context. The first project set out to investigate the value of computers and other IT equipment (such as wireless microphones) applied within small-group advanced practical training, and demonstrated considerable benefits in flexibility, as well as suggesting new perspectives on the interface between phonetics teaching and research. Next, the PHONLINE project is outlined, which we believe to be the first comprehensive attempt to develop an online distance course making available most of the elements of established oncampus phonetic training within a VLE. This project showed how the interactive online mode of presentation encourages the inclusion of research findings even in a foundation-level syllabus and led to further work, now in progress, aiming to develop opportunities for greater interactivity and particularly to explore the use of further audio tools (such as VoIP), both within and in parallel to the VLE, to achieve this. In a final section, we point out that developments in teaching and learning need to be matched by corresponding innovation in assessment, and report a project concerned with providing a background for the development of meaningful and efficient assessments in phonetics, with a survey of assessment types against a conceptual framework from educational theory.Este trabajo describe una serie de iniciativas de investigación subvencionadas en la UCL durante los últimos cuatro años, para desarrollar innovaciones en la enseñanza, aprendizaje y evaluación de la fonética en un contexto universitario. El primer proyecto se dedicó a la investigación del valor de los ordenadores y otros equipos informáticos (tales como los micrófonos inalámbricos) aplicados mediante formación práctica avanzada a pequeños grupos y demostró considerables ventajas en flexibilidad, además de sugerir nuevas perspectivas en la intersección entre la enseñanza y la investigación de la fonética. El siguiente proyecto descrito, PHONLINE, es, creemos, el primer intento exhaustivo de desarrollar un curso virtual que ofrezca la mayoría de los elementos que se trabajan en la formación presencial en fonética dentro de un VLE. Este proyecto mostró cómo el modo de presentación interactivo fomenta la inclusión de los hallazgos de la investigación incluso en un programa de estudios de nivel básico, y llevó a nuevos trabajos que tienen como objetivo desarrollar oportunidades para una mayor interactividad y, particularmen te, explorar el uso de otras herramientas de audio (como el VoIP) para conseguirla, tanto dentro como en paralelo al VLE. En la sección final, indicamos que los desarrollos en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje deben corresponderse con la innovación en la evaluación, y citamos un proyecto que provee un trasfondo para el desarrollo de evaluaciones relevantes y eficientes en fonética, con una encuesta de tipos de evaluación en un marco conceptual proveniente de la teoría educacional

    Utility of Solo and Peer Work for Pronunciation Practice

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    Online courses tend to decrease studentsʼ opportunities to speak. This paper suggests two activities to improve pronunciation skills to address this lack. One was introduced in an elective course of English Phonetics for English majors. Students use software to record assignments to practice shadowing and then submit their sound files. The other was conducted in a mandatory course of First-year English for non-English majors. Students give a presentation in a video meeting after practicing with their teacher regularly. Comparing the two courses, features and effects will be discussed based on studentsʼ opinions. Fifty-six students answered a survey about the software and the activity. Ninety students commented upon the speech presentation. These results serve a useful purpose as insights into the learnersʼ viewpoints. Activities such as those given can function to promote autonomy and motivation as well as serve as a tool to improve speaking skills. It is difficult but essential to facilitate good teacher-student and student-student relationships onlin

    Immersive Telepresence: A framework for training and rehearsal in a postdigital age

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    "A Stressful Unknown" or "an Oasis"? : Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Assessment in an In-Class and Online English Phonetics Course

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    The sudden need to switch from traditional in-class instruction to online teaching and assessment due to the covid-19 pandemic has posed considerable challenges to teachers, but also to learners. The mixed method study reported in this article compared Polish undergraduate students' cognitive, affective, and behavioural re-sponses to assessment provided in two practical English phonetics courses taught during an in-class fall semester and online spring semester. The quantitative data were collected by means of an online questionnaire, which consisted of three categories of semantic differential scales referring to the cognitive, affective, and behavioural responses. The qualitative data consisted of drawings, open-ended surveys, and individual interviews with the students. The t-test results showed sig-nificant differences in students' perceptions in terms of cognitive and behavioural aspects. The qualitative data revealed that although the students highly valued formative assessment in the course, the online mode weakened their engagement and interest in receiving feedback. It was also observed that students' perceptions of in-class and online assessment were shaped largely by their individual dif-ferences and learning preferences. The study underlies the importance of using anxiety-lowering techniques in both in-class and online classes, and the need for fostering undergraduate students' autonomous learning skills

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    The Implementation of Flipped Classroom Teaching Mode in Basic English Teaching for Tibetan College Students

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    For Tibetan college students to learn English, code-switching hinders them because Tibetan, Chinese, as well as English, form a trilingual environment for language learning. To improve such situation, this article studies the implementation of flipped classroom mode which can innovate the traditional teaching mode by fully highlighting the students’ subjectivity as well as stimulating the students’ initiative and enthusiasm
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