The Central Characteristics of Successful ESL/EFL Teachers

Achieving optimal success in teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires teachers to demonstrate varying essential characteristics that consist of several underlying and interacting constructs. The purpose of this article is to orient the reader and succinctly identify the key variables that lead ESL/EFL teachers to distinctive success. It clearly delineates the characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers embedded within five central dimensions, along with their underlying structures. It also provides common taxonomies of successful EFL teachers’ attributes without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail concerning the many other validated attributes associated with ESL/EFL teachers’ salient attributions of success. To this end, this discussion contributes to a theoretical understanding of the development of successful ESL/EFL teachers and to improved knowledge of the key characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers

Continued Concerns with Language Assessment Practices in Saudi Arabian English Education

Language assessment, viewed as a means to help instructors guide learners in effectively and successfully learning a language, plays an important role in the skills, competencies, and overall language-learning outcomes of second-language learners. This conceptual article reviews and synthesizes current language assessment practices and issues in English education in Saudi Arabia. It first highlights the overarching features of existing assessment methods practiced in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia, after which it discusses the factors underpinning those assessment practices and the detrimental effects of such practices on the development of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language. The article concludes by proposing a few pedagogical practices with the potential to change current language assessment practices in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia

Unique Challenges Saudi EFL Learners Face

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is both a promising endeavor and a challenging undertaking. All language learners encounter unique challenges in the process of learning English, and Saudi EFL learners are no exception. This article identifies the unique and multifarious challenges Saudi EFL learners face, and explores the multidimensional causal factors in the progression of the challenges they face most commonly. The analysis first tackles the considerable challenge of accurate spelling, followed by a discussion of the challenges Saudi EFL learners encounter when learning to read and write in English. This discussion addresses challenges in sociolinguistic competence and English pronunciation arising from multivariate factors, and concludes by offering measures to help Saudi EFL learners overcome these characteristic challenges and promote their trajectory toward successful acquisition of EFL

Isolation and Genetic Characterization of Rift Valley fever virus from Aedes vexans arabiensis, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2000 was the first recognized occurrence of the illness outside of Africa and Madagascar. An assessment of potential mosquito vectors in the region yielded an isolate from Aedes vexans arabiensis, most closely related to strains from Madagascar (1991) and Kenya (1997)

Could a multimodal dictionary serve as a learning tool? An examination of the impact of technologically enhanced visual glosses on L2 text comprehension

[EN] This study examines the efficacy of a multimodal online bilingual dictionary based on cognitive linguistics in order to explore the advantages and limitations of explicit multimodal L2 vocabulary learning. Previous studies have examined the efficacy of the verbal and visual representation of words while reading L2 texts, concluding that it facilitates incidental word retention. This study explores other potentials of multimodal L2 vocabulary learning: explicit learning with a multimodal dictionary could enhance not only word retention, but also text comprehension; the dictionary could serve not only as a reference tool, but also as a learning tool; and technology-enhanced visual glosses could facilitate deeper text comprehension. To verify these claims, this study investigates the multimodal representations’ effects on Japanese students learning L2 locative prepositions by developing two online dictionaries, one with static pictures and one with animations. The findings show the advantage of such dictionaries in explicit learning; however, no significant differences are found between the two types of visual glosses, either in the vocabulary or in the listening tests. This study confirms the effectiveness of multimodal L2 materials, but also emphasizes the need for further research into making the technologically enhanced materials more effective.Sato, T. (2016). Could a multimodal dictionary serve as a learning tool? An examination of the impact of technologically enhanced visual glosses on L2 text comprehension. The EuroCALL Review. 24(2):3-12. doi:10.4995/eurocall.2016.5236.SWORD312242Al-Seghayer, K. (2001). The effect of multimedia annotation modes on L2 vocabulary acquisition: A comparative study. Language Learning and Technology, 5(1), 202-232.Boers, F. (2004). Expanding Learners’ Vocabulary Through Metaphor Awareness: What Expansion, What Learners, What Vocabulary? 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(1996). English prepositions explained. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Lindstromberg, S. (2001). Preposition entries in UK monolingual learners’ dictionaries: problems and possible solutions. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 79-103. doi:10.1093/applin/22.1.79Littlemore, J. (2009). Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching. doi:10.1057/9780230245259Lomicka, L. L. (1998). "To gloss or not to gloss": An investigation of reading comprehension online. Language Learning & Technology, 1, 41-50.Mayer, R. E., & Sims, V. K. (1994). For whom is a picture worth a thousand words? Extensions of a dual-coding theory of multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(3), 389-401. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.86.3.389Ngu, B. H., & Rethinasamy, S. (2006). Evaluating a CALL software on the learning of English prepositions. Computers & Education, 47(1), 41-55. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2004.08.016Morimoto, S., & Loewen, S. (2007). 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Putting out the fires: Supervisors' experiences of introducing primary English in Saudi Arabia.

Teaching English to Young learners (TEYL) initiatives can represent an example of complex change (Fullan, 1992), whose classroom implementation implies those affected by the change learning new, or adjusting existing, practices and beliefs. Research (Levin and Fullan, 2008; Wedell, 2013) suggests that if contextually appropriate versions of complex change outcomes are to become visible in the majority of classrooms, both the parts of the change system (e.g. materials and assessment), and the way in which the people affected (change ‘partners’) carry out their roles, need to be as consistent as possible with change aims. Saudi Arabia introduced the teaching of English in the last year of primary level in 2004, and expanded it to the fourth year of schooling in 2011. This study uses the reported experiences of representatives from one key group of change ‘partners’: Saudi Primary English Supervisors, to explore aspects of the first six years of TEYL implementation. Their reports suggest widespread inconsistency during the first phase of implementation and little attempt to address the issues before launching the second phase. We suggest that acknowledging the value of these implementers' experiences and giving greater consideration to their suggestions, could help enable the second phase of implementation to become more consistent than the first

Determinants of Saudi EFL Learners’ Beliefs about Learning EFL

Language learners’ beliefs constitute an individual difference variable that profoundly influences language-learning behavior and significantly contributes to the process and ultimate success of language learning. This article identifies the beliefs Saudi learners hold about learning English as a foreign language (EFL). The analysis first addresses Saudi EFL learners’ perceptions of English, followed by a discussion of Saudi EFL learners’ experiences with learning English. The discussion also addresses these learners’ expectations about studying English and concludes by pinpointing the importance of understanding the distinct language-learning beliefs of Saudi EFL learners and highlighting all factors that could affect these beliefs. Moreover, this conceptual article offers measures and progressive ideas to consider that will help Saudi EFL teachers reinforce more productive and insightful language beliefs that have a facilitative effect on language learning and keep Saudi EFL learners from developing debilitative conceptions of language-learning beliefs. This work also highlights several research directions and pedagogical implications

The effect of multimedia annotation modes on l2 vocabulary acquisition: a comparative study

One aspect of second language teaching via multimedia to have received attention over the past few years is the impact of glossing individual vocabulary words through different modalities. This study examines which of the image modalities--dynamic video or still picture--is more effective in aiding vocabulary acquisition. The participants, 30 ESL students, were introduced to a hypermedia-learning program, designed by the researcher for reading comprehension. The program provides users reading a narrative English text with a variety of glosses or annotations for words in the form of printed text, graphics, video, and sound, all of which are intended to aid in the understanding and learning of unknown words. A within-subject design was used in this study with 30 participants being measured under three conditions: printed text definition alone, printed text definition coupled with still pictures, and printed text definition coupled with video clips. In order to assess the efficacy of each mode, a vocabulary test was designed and administered to participants after they had read the English narrative. Two types of tests were administered: recognition and production. In addition, a face-to-face interview was conducted, and questionnaires were distributed. Results of the both tests were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures. The investigation has yielded the conclusion that a video clip is more effective in teaching unknown vocabulary words than a still picture. Among the suggested factors that explain such a result are that video better builds a mental image, better creates curiosity leading to increased concentration, and embodies an advantageous combination of modalities (vivid or dynamic image, sound, and printed text)