Investigation into Strategies of Creativity in EFL Writing in Jordan

The aim of this study is to investigate the utilization of strategies in EFL writing creativity. It also aims to investigate the barriers that face EFL students in the promotion of their creativity in EFL writing. The present study made use of a qualitative approach to obtain data from the one hundred branches of Discovery Schools (DSs) located in Amman, Jordan for the Academic year 2012/2013. This study lasts for six months, categorized into three phases namely pre-pilot, pilot and the actual/main study, with each phase lasting for two months. Utilizing convenience sampling, the present study chose ten EFL teachers, who teach first secondary students and eight students who did not do well on TTCT. Two instruments were employed to collect data namely, semi-structured interviews and observations. To check the trustworthiness and credibility of qualitative data, the researcher utilized two strategies namely; Triangulation and member check. The results showed that participating teachers' responses to the interviews revealed five primary themes with sub-themes. These themes are getting students’ started in writing, encouraging students to keep on writing, focusing on instruction, valuing students’ writings and encouraging students to be creative. The observations results showed some discrepancies in the actual use of these themes adopted by teachers in the classroom. The results of students during interviews showed that all eight students provided their opinions concerning the constraining factors that they encounter while promoting their EFL writing creativity. Their responses were categorized into five themes namely inadequate vocabulary, lack of unity and coherence, lack of encouragement, lack of positive feedback and lack of motivation. Keywords: Writing Strategies, Creativity in EFL writing, Writing Barriers, Jordanian Secondary School Students

Graduate Students' ChatGPT Experience and Perspectives during Thesis Writing

The artificial intelligence (AI) language model ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, can assist students with academic writing assignments in innovative and distinctive ways. Several studies have investigated how postgraduate students perceive various aspects and how gender could affect their perspectives. This study analyzes the perspectives of 80 male and female postgraduate students in various academic fields at Jadara University regarding the use of ChatGPT in writing their theses. This investigation adopts a quantitative approach and extensively utilizes a questionnaire as the primary tool for data collection. The survey aims to determine how students perceive ChatGPT in terms of its usefulness, ease of use, impact on writing quality, and challenges related to dependability and academic integrity. Descriptive statistics examine gender differences in these perceptions, shedding light on postgraduate students’ usage of ChatGPT and gender-related roles. This information could enhance academic writing through the use of AI technology and inform future studies and practices

Investigation into Strategies of Creativity in EFL writing in Jordan

The aim of this study is to investigate the utilization of strategies in EFL writing creativity. It also aims to investigate the barriers that face EFL students in the promotion of their creativity in EFL writing. The present study made use of a qualitative approach to obtain data from the one hundred branches of Discovery Schools (DSs) located in Amman, Jordan for the Academic year 2012/2013. This study lasts for six months, categorized into three phases namely pre-pilot, pilot and the actual/main study, with each phase lasting for two months. Utilizing convenience sampling, the present study chose ten EFL teachers, who teach first secondary students and eight students who did not do well on TTCT. Two instruments were employed to collect data namely, semi-structured interviews and observations. To check the trustworthiness and credibility of qualitative data, the researcher utilized two strategies namely; Triangulation and member check. The results showed that participating teachers' responses to the interviews revealed five primary themes with sub-themes. These themes are getting students’ started in writing, encouraging students to keep on writing, focusing on instruction, valuing students’ writings and encouraging students to be creative. The observations results showed some discrepancies in the actual use of these themes adopted by teachers in the classroom. The results of students during interviews showed that all eight students provided their opinions concerning the constraining factors that they encounter while promoting their EFL writing creativity. Their responses were categorized into five themes namely inadequate vocabulary, lack of unity and coherence, lack of encouragement, lack of positive feedback and lack of motivation. Keywords: Writing Strategies, Creativity in EFL writing, Writing Barriers, Jordanian Secondary School Students

Gender Differences and Emotional Expressiveness on Facebook: An Analysis of Prosodic Features among Jordanian Facebookers

Despite seemingly countless studies addressing emotional expressiveness, most of these studies were focused on western communities, neglecting the Arab community in general, and the Jordanian discourse in particular. The purpose of this paper is to examine how paralinguistic features of emotional expression are used by male and female Jordanian Facebookers. A total of 100 participants, 50 males and 50 females, took part in this study, all of whom were native Jordanians. The current study was conducted by utilizing the “Web for corpus building” approach, as the data has been extracted manually from Facebook status updates, comments on other users’ status updates, photos, wall posts and so on. The findings revealed that women experience and express emotions more often than men in general. More studies with different contextual factors (e.g., age, social status, and ethnicity) and a different sources of data collection (e.g., face-to-face interaction, role plays, and observation) are recommended for future studies

The Impact Mind Mapping on Writing Ability of Jordanian EFL Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study

This study has made use of quasi-experimental research design that included a control group and pre- and post-testing. The participants were split into two groups: the experimental group, which was given instruction on how to use mind mapping as a prewriting approach, and the control group, which was given conventional teaching. Both groups were given training; however the experimental group was shown how to utilize mind mapping as a prewriting tactic, while the control group was shown the more conventional method. A pre-test and a post-test on writing performance were given to both groups, and the data gathered from these assessments were evaluated using a paired-samples t-test as well as an independent-samples t-test. According to the findings, the experimental group had much better results in terms of their writing skills compared to the control group. This was shown by a statistically significant difference in the posttest scores. In addition, the experimental group shown gains in a variety of areas of their writing, such as coherence, vocabulary use, and organization. Based on these results, thought mapping seems to have the potential to be an efficient prewriting approach that may help Jordanian EFL students improve their overall writing ability

The Level of Creativity in English Writing among Jordanian Secondary School Students

The aim of this study is to explore the level of creativity in English writing among Jordanian secondary school students. The researchers have used a random sample of 100 students of secondary school students in Irbid and Amman cities in Jordan. Adapetd Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was used to measure their creativity in English writing. TTCT test is thought to be the best test to evaluate the creativity dimensions of students in writing. TTCT assesses fluency or the number of ideas; flexibility, the variety of categories in the answers; and originality, which consists in considering innovative answers, neither familiar nor inappropriate. The results of the study showed that the respondents fall in the moderate level of creativity. Keywords: Creativity Dimensions, Creativity in EFL writing, Level of creativity, Jordanian     Secondary School Students, TTCT.

Interdisciplinary investigation of naming practices of cafes signages in Jordan

Various studies have extensively examined the linguistic aspects of signage, especially in the context of store signs. However, scholarly research on Jordanian café culture is limited. Therefore, conducting a comprehensive study of Jordan's café scene is relevant and promising in providing valuable sociocultural insights. This research explores the sociocultural values, norms, and practices associated with café signs in Jordan. Three hundred forty café signs from various neighbourhoods in Amman provided the linguistic data for this research. The findings revealed that English predominates in café signage due to its liveliness, strong connection to globalisation, and favourable client perceptions. The data also showed that trendy café names and English cultural references enhance visibility. These establishments use alliteration, blending, compounding, and connotation techniques to attract customers. This study highlights the significance of English-language signage in Jordan and its implications for linguistic landscape research. Thus, the research proves beneficial for linguistic landscape researchers seeking insights into sociocultural values, norms, and practices in Jordanian society

The level of creativity in English writing among Jordanian secondary school students

The aim of this study is to explore the level of creativity in English writing among Jordanian secondary school students.The researchers have used a random sample of 100 students of secondary school students in Irbid and Amman cities in Jordan.Adapetd Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was used to measure their creativity in English writing.TTCT test is thought to be the best test to evaluate the creativity dimensions of students in writing.TTCT assesses fluency or the number of ideas; flexibility, the variety of categories in the answers; and originality, which consists in considering innovative answers, neither familiar nor inappropriate.The results of the study showed that the respondents fall in the moderate level of creativity

The Status of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and English Language in Jordan

Jordan’s educational system is now based around the concepts of freedom, justice, and human and economic development in order to achieve a high level of productivity and progress. Jordan is one of the developing countries that are consistently attempting to align development with current global educational standards, as one of the Kingdom’s top priorities. The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) (2003), Education Reform for Knowledge Economy (ERfKE) (2003), Connecting Jordanians’ Initiative (2005), and English Interactive Online Initiative (EIOI) (2006), among others, have been initiated by the ministry. The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) was established in the same year as the ERfKE project (2003). Jordan recently revised the learning results for all of its national school subject areas, outlining what content students should know and what skills they should learn at—grade level

Jadara University Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Microsoft Teams in Learning English as a Foreign Language

This qualitative study aimed at investigating students’ attitudes towards the use of Microsoft Teams in their learning. The study has adopted a qualitative research design to determine attitudes of EFL students towards the use of Microsoft Teams in leaning. Six EFL students were chosen and interviewed using a focus group interview. Three positive themes emerged from students’ responses namely, convenience, time efficiency, and shared learning resources. And two negative themes were noted as well including technical problems and difficulties in doing certain types of exercises. This study also recommends a comparative study between traditional and virtual learning and teaching