First language in the classroom: the forbidden fruit?

Tesis (Profesor de Inglés para la Enseñanza Básica y Media y al grado académico de Licenciado en Educación)Over the past years, the use of students’ first language (L1) in the classroom has been a highly discussed topic in the EFL classroom as well as in the field of second language (L2) teaching/learning research. There is a tendency that advocates communicative language teaching which suggests that L1 use should forbidden in the classroom. However, research has yet to discover whether L1 use has a positive or negative impact on L2 learning. Hence, the present study aimed to examine L1 functions and the impact of L1 use on L2 development. The present study was conducted in a private school in Santiago, Chile. The participants of this study (N = 34) were engaged in two collaborative writing tasks about the book they were reading in their English literature classes, and their discussions were audio-recorded and later analyzed. A quasi-experimental method was utilized in order to observe the influence that group work had on their L2 vocabulary development. The results demonstrated that the students’ L1 played a major role in their interaction while together working on the collaborative tasks, and it served for the development of L2 vocabulary. Specifically, the results suggest that the way in which individual learners contributed to interaction affected their learning outcomes.En los últimos años, el uso de la primera lengua de los estudiantes ha sido un tema altamente discutido en las salas de clases y en la investigación de la enseñanza de inglés como Lengua Extranjera. Existe una tendencia general de prohibir el uso de la primera lengua, sin embargo, aún existen vacíos sobre la influencia positiva o negativa que esta podría tener en el aprendizaje de vocabulario. El presente estudio se realizó en una escuela privada en Santiago, Chile. El propósito del mismo fue observar las funciones que cumplía la lengua nativa en la interacción de los estudiantes y cómo esto afectaba al desarrollo de la segunda lengua en alumnos de octavo básico con alto nivel de inglés. Los participantes de este estudio fueron involucrados en dos actividades de escritura colaborativa sobre el libro que estaban leyendo en las clases de literatura inglesa, donde sus discusiones fueron grabadas en audio y luego analizadas. Se utilizó un método cuasi experimental para observar la influencia que tuvieron sus discusiones grupales –utilizando su primera lengua—en el desarrollo del vocabulario en la segunda lengua. Se aplicaron evaluaciones pre y post con el fin de tener un registro del desarrollo del vocabulario de los estudiantes y las funciones que la lengua materna cumplió fueron codificadas como sugirieron DiCamilla y Antón (2012). Los resultados demostraron que la lengua materna de los estudiantes jugó un rol mayor en su interacción mientras desarrollaban en conjunto actividades colaboración, y sirvió para el desarrollo del vocabulario de la segunda lengua. Más aun, los resultados sugieren que la forma en la que alumnos contribuyeron individualmente en las discusiones afectó los resultados en sus aprendizajes

Chinese Learners Learning Thai Language with an Application: Evidence from an Acoustic Study and a Perception Test

This research analyzes the acoustic characteristics and conducts a perception test of Thai tones produced by Chinese learners learning Thai through the “Thai Tone Application”. A comparison of Thai tones pronounced by 40 Chinese learners learning Thai at Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University with 40 Thai native speakers was also conducted. The acoustic characteristics studied in this research were the fundamental frequencies analyzed with the Praat program version 6.0.9. The F0 values were then converted to semitone values. Statistical analysis was used. The perception test was conducted before and after using the application. The results showed that the Thai Tone Application promoted better tone pronunciation and perception in Chinese learners learning Thai as a foreign language. After utilizing the Thai Tone Application with the Chinese learners, they could clearly pronounce the mid and the low tones, which is linguistically classified as the problematic level tones for Chinese learners. The application helped expedite contour tones such as the high tone and the rising tone, but not the falling tone. The minimal pair approach used to create the application was discussed

Text reconstruction activities and teaching language forms

Even though there is a broad consensus that teaching language forms is facilitative or even necessary in some contexts, there are still disagreements concerning, among other things, how formal aspects of the target language should be taught. One important area of controversy is whether pedagogic intervention should be input-oriented, emphasizing comprehension of the form- meaning mappings represented by specific linguistic features or output-based, requiring learners to produce these features accurately in gradually more communicative activities. The present paper focuses on the latter of these two options and, basing on the claims of Swain‘s (1985, 1995) output hypothesis, it aims to demonstrates how text-reconstruction activities in which learners collaboratively produce written output trigger noticing, hypothesis-testing and metalinguistic reflection on language use. It presents a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic rationale for the use of such tasks, discusses the types of such activities, provides an overview of research projects investigating their application and, finally, offers a set of implications for classroom use as well as suggestions for further research in this area

Foreign Language Anxiety in Listening and Speaking English in a Thai EFL Classroom

This current research study is an exploratory study which has the aim to investigate language anxiety experienced by students majoring in English for International Communication (EIC) at the college in a university in the southern part of Thailand. This study adopted an interpretive methodology that used a sequential mixed methods approach for data collection. There were 42 students participating in the quantitative study whilst 6 students in qualitative study. The data, both quantitative and qualitative, were collected through questionnaire, diary and semi-structured interview. Data were analysed quantitatively using SPSS descriptive statistics and Factor Analysis while the thematic analysis was used as qualitative method. The findings revealed that all participants experienced language anxiety in class. Their sources of anxiety mostly were from the students themselves. Diary writing activity—one of the research instruments—had a very positive effect as it enabled students to deal with their anxiety and improved the situation

EFFECTIVENESS OF POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON VOCABULARY RETENTION OF EFL FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Vocabulary learning plays an important role in language learning. To many language learners, lack of vocabulary is one of the biggest obstacles that prevent them from mastering the language. Moreover, there have been a lot of studies conducted to find out the way to help language learners acquire and retain learned vocabulary. Among them, PowerPoint is suggested by many researchers as one good way to help learners learn vocabulary retention through reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of PowerPoint on vocabulary retention in reading comprehension of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) first-year students at Long An University of Economics and Industry (DLA), Long An Province, Vietnam. Besides, this study investigates learners’ attitudes towards the use of PowerPoint in learning vocabulary. The participants were 60 non-English major students at DLA. Two instruments were (1) the tests on English vocabulary, (2) the questionnaire on the participants’ attitudes towards the use of PowerPoint in teaching and learning vocabulary, were investigated. The results demonstrated a significant difference in learners’ vocabulary retention: the participants in the experimental group remembered vocabulary longer than those in the control group. The study showed that the learners had positive attitudes towards the use of PPT (PowerPoint Presentation) in learning vocabulary retention.  Article visualizations

Cross–cultural communication in Thai EFL university classrooms: a case study

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyIn the past few decades there has been increased communication among people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Greater internationalisation of education has contributed to academic interest in cross–cultural communication. Thailand is considered an‟English as a Foreign Language‟ (EFL) country in which English is mandatory curriculum subject at primary, secondary, college and university levels. Thai education policy has aimed at improving Thai students‟ English proficiency by hiring more native English speakers to teach at schools and universities. Moreover, having had native English lecturers teaching in Thai universities provides opportunities for Thai students to communicate across cultures. From a social–cultural perspective, this study investigated how native English lecturers and Thai students apply cross–cultural communication strategies within real interactional contexts in the Thai EFL classroom. This research aims to improve communication between native English lecturers, Thai lecturers and non–native English students or Thai students through the use of effective cross–cultural communication strategies in the Thai EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. This study used a mixed–qualitative–methods design (Mason, 2006) which was composed of interviews, classroom observations and video recordings of classroom teachings. This methodology was chosen in order to allow the researcher an integrated and clearer understanding of what was happening in the Thai EFL classroom. The case study approach was used to investigate one small department within one university (Denscombe, 2010) to allow the researcher to explore in–depth exchanges arising from teacher–student communication phenomena (Yin, 2009). Using socio–cultural theory developed by Engeström and different themes that emerged from various taxononomies as frameworks, the findings from this research revealed that native English lecturers, Thai lecturers, and Thai students employed various cross–cultural communication strategies including communication strategies derived from Tarone‟s (1977; 1983), Willems‟(1997), and Dӧrnyei and Scott‟s (1995a, 1995b) taxonomy of communication strategies. Additionally, simple pedagogical strategies applied by the lecturers played significant roles in enabling Thai students to maintain the conversations as well as boosting confidence in English speaking while having less fear of interacting with the lecturer in the Thai EFL classroom. Furthermore, the findings suggest that both native English and Thai lecturers have to be aware of and sensitive to Thai students‟ cultural aspects, their nature and behaviours expressed in the Thai EFL classroom in order to encourage these students to respond or speak up. Besides, the application of CCC(s), CS(s) and pedagogical strategies are perceived as necessary tools for the Thai EFL teachers and students. As a result of this research, an original taxonomy of effective communication strategies is proposed to be used by both teachers and students in cross–cultural EFL classroom contexts