DISCOURSE AWARENESS AND ISSUES IN EST MATERIALS DESIGN

Understanding text structure (knowledge of discourse and genre) within specific contexts plays a very important part in EST materials development for language teaching and learning.  It is argued that for students to comprehend particular texts and to learn a language well, language teaching should begin with an understanding of text structure. It is thus essential for EST teachers to be aware that linguistic patterns exist across stretches of text within different text types and an understanding of these patterns would make text comprehension and reading to learn in the content area easier. Thus, teachers need to be trained to develop discourse-based materials as an understanding of different text types can enhance language learning.  This paper discusses the importance of discourse awareness and issues of design, development and application in the development of EST materials in relation to written texts by introducing frameworks for designing discourse-based materials. Keywords: discourse awareness, EST materials desig

THE USE OF SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES AMONG ESL LEARNERS IN THE COMPREHENSION OF LITERARY TEXTS

Research involving comprehension among adult learners has been tremendously influential in the field of learning.  This has led researchers across various disciplines to study the strategies adult learners use in an attempt to gain understanding of materials read.  For example studies conducted by O’Malley and Chamot (1985)  involving beginning and intermediate ESL students resulted in identification of 26 language learning strategies.  On the other hand, Kalmbach (1986) identifies retelling as a form of strategy that could enhance comprehension among learners. One interesting aspect highlighted by the sociocultural theory is the use of scaffolding as a form of strategy to make sense of information.  Various researches carried out in this field have shown the importance and effectiveness of scaffolding strategy.  For example, studies by Donato & McCormick (1994) and Anton & DiCamilla (1998) on second language users of English have identified several scaffolding strategies that assist learners in gaining knowledge.    Bearing this view in mind, this paper discusses how a group of teacher trainees of differing proficiency levels attempt to create meaning of two selected short stories.   The study mainly focuses on the types of scaffolding utilized by teacher trainees from three different levels of proficiency; dyads of high proficiency, dyads of low proficiency and dyads of mixed proficiency.  Based on the transcripts of the  recorded discussions,  the  findings  indicate that the types of scaffolding utilized by the respondents differ based on their proficiency levels. (234 words ). Keywords:   Scaffolding strategies; Comprehension processes,Literary text

Speech accommodation strategies in the selling of life insurance

This paper explores the oral communication behaviour of speakers involved in life insurance sales meetings. It is often argued that speakers adjust their speech to "accommodate" the person they are addressing. This situation may be more prominent in sales talk, which is acknowledged as goal-orientated interaction with a specific structure, roles and patterns of language use. Using the communication accommodation theory (CAT), the authors attempt to show that the sellers (life insurance agents) and buyers (also known as prospects) of life insurance will use different accommodation strategies to ensure a sale or to reject a sale. Analysis of data from sales meetings provides some insights into the discourse of life insurance sales meeting conversations and management, including employment of accommodation strategies in the sales meetings. This paper addresses the role of speech accommodation by sellers and buyers of life insurance as seen in two life insurance sales meetings conducted in a specific region of Malaysia. The participants of the meetings were bilingual speakers of Malay, English and Chinese, and the competency level of spoken English differed from one participant to the other. The paper discusses the extent to which the participants used convergent and divergent strategies throughout the meetings to accommodate linguistic differences and difficulties, including the extent to which both the sellers and buyers of the life insurance were aware of the need to adjust their language according to the needs of their listeners in order to achieve the communicative purpose

ESL writing variablity: Writing tasks, gender, and proficiency level

Research focusing on L1 (native speakers of English) writers has shown that students tend to perform differently on different writing tasks. L1 students perform better on narrative and descriptive writing tasks than argumentative.  In fact, some scholars have suggested that L1 students lack a schema for argumentative writing, which perhaps contribute to their poor performance on argumentative writing tasks. This tendency seems also applicable to L2 (non-native speakers of English) writers.  This paper reports the findings of a study on the impact of narrative and argumentative writing tasks, gender and proficiency level on the quality of Malaysian English as a second language (ESL) learners’ writing.  The findings of this study are discussed in the light of variability in ESL writing.  Their implications for writing assessment practices are also highlighted

Developing an argumentative writing scale

Today, with more emphasis on the student writers’ awareness of the genres of writing, there is a need for writing scales that are sensitive to the variation in the text types. Numerous writing scales have been developed over the past decades, but new scales are required to be developed as the testing situations vary. As a part of a project that aimed at developing a genre-specific writing scale to evaluate tertiary level argumentative writing, a focus group study was conducted. For this purpose, a pre-existing group of experienced English as a Second Language (ESL) lecturers (n=4) discussed what traits of the argumentative writing skill should be included in a writing scale. They also discussed how much weight should be assigned to each trait. As a result of the study, the subscales of ‘task fulfilment’, ‘content’, ‘organization’, ‘vocabulary’, ‘style’, ‘grammar’ and ‘mechanics’ (in the order of their importance) were proposed by these experts. The study has implications for teaching-testing of ESL writing skill

ESL WRITING VARIABILITY: WRITING TASKS, GENDER AND PROFICIENCY LEVEL

Research focusing on L1 (native speakers of English) writers has shown that students tend to perform differently on different writing tasks. L1 students perform better on narrative and descriptive writing tasks than argumentative.  In fact, some scholars have suggested that L1 students lack a schema for argumentative writing, which perhaps contribute to their poor performance on argumentative writing tasks. This tendency seems also applicable to L2 (non-native speakers of English) writers.  This paper reports the findings of a study on the impact of narrative and argumentative writing tasks, gender and proficiency level on the quality of Malaysian English as a second language (ESL) learners’ writing.  The findings of this study are discussed in the light of variability in ESL writing.  Their implications for writing assessment practices are also highlighted. Keywords:  ESL writing, task variability, gender, proficiencylevel

Graphic organiser as a strategic tool for enhancing summary writing / Shameem Rafik-Galea and Jasvir Kaur Amar Singh

Summary writing can be used to bridge success in both the English language and content area reading and writing classroom. The ability to summarise a lengthy text or article into its essential ideas is a mark of a proficient reader and writer, thus, making it a critical study skill. Research has shown that summary writing helps improve students’ comprehension. Hence, it is considered an effective learning strategy because students must make decisions about the relative importance of elements in a text in order to summarise it and they also need to comprehend a text at a higher level than when they are simply reading it. Students would be able to increase their comprehension of a text if they are well trained in summary writing skills. Summary writing is an essential aspect of the Malaysian upper secondary school curriculum. However, the writers’ observations reveal that students are not given adequate practice in summary writing although it is a critical skill. Furthermore, the textbooks in use do not provide appropriate techniques for practice in summary writing. Hence, this paper describes an action research that explores the application of graphic organisers along side other strategies in the teaching of summary writing

Esl Writing Variability: Writing Tasks, Gender And Proficiency Level

Research focusing on L1 (native speakers of English) writers has shown that students tend to perform differently on different writing tasks. L1 students perform better on narrative and descriptive writing tasks than argumentative. In fact, some scholars have suggested that L1 students lack a schema for argumentative writing, which perhaps contribute to their poor performance on argumentative writing tasks. This tendency seems also applicable to L2 (non-native speakers of English) writers. This paper reports the findings of a study on the impact of narrative and argumentative writing tasks, gender and proficiency level on the quality of Malaysian English as a second language (ESL) learners\u27 writing. The findings of this study are discussed in the light of variability in ESL writing. Their implications for writing assessment practices are also highlighted

The use of scaffolding strategies among ESL learners in the comprehension of literary texts

Research involving comprehension among adult learners has been tremendously influential in the field of learning. This has led researchers across various disciplines to study the strategies adult learners use in an attempt to gain understanding of materials read. For example studies conducted by O’Malley and Chamot (1985)involving beginning and intermediate ESL students resulted in identification of 26 language learning strategies. On the other hand, Kalmbach (1986) identifies retelling as a form of strategy that could enhance comprehension among learners. One interesting aspect highlighted by the sociocultural theory is the use of scaffolding as a form of strategy to make sense of information. Various researches carried out in this field have shown the importance and effectiveness of scaffolding strategy. For example, studies by Donato & McCormick (1994) and Anton & DiCamilla (1998) on second language users of English have identified several scaffolding strategies that assist learners in gaining knowledge. Bearing this view in mind, this paper discusses how a group of teacher trainees of differing proficiency levels attempt to create meaning of two selected short stories. The study mainly focuses on the types of scaffolding utilized by teacher trainees from three different levels of proficiency; dyads of high proficiency, dyads of low proficiency and dyads of mixed proficiency. Based on the transcripts of the recorded discussions, the findings indicate that the types of scaffolding utilized by the respondents differ based on their proficiency levels