The effects of written corrective feedback using wikis among ESL learners

Wikis are being used more and more frequently in language learning situations. Their ease of access and usability has made them a popular choice amongst language teachers; especially in the teaching of writing. However, the full potential of wikis outside collaborative writing has yet to be explored. This study aims to focus on the potentials of providing feedback to written work using the platform of wikis. In this study, 14 students were asked to provide feedback and comments on their peers’ essays on a wiki platform using a correction checklist provided to them. These students were first asked to write an essay, upload it onto the wiki platform, and then finally comment on the written texts of their peers; for a total of nine times. At the end of the study, the students’ pre and post-test scores were compared to see whether their written accuracy had improved. A pairedsample t-test was used to analyse the students’ pre and post-test scores and the results showed a significant improvement in Jacob’s (1981) ESL components of content, organization, language use and vocabulary; however, the study did not yield the same results for the students’ punctuation use. In being provided comments by peers and their teacher through the platform of wikis, the students’ enthusiasm increased when put through the feedback; therefore, their focus heightened on writing a more accurate version of their previous essay. This in turn, increased the overall quality of their final essay

English Language Competency and Outsourced Call Centers in Bangladesh

This paper attempts to investigate whether or not the English competency of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) is hindering the growth and development of outsourced call centers in Bangladesh. It also looks into the problems being faced by call centers in hiring English competent CSRs. A limited appraisal of the English communication training of the CSRs offered by Call Centre Training Institutes is also within the purview of the paper. With this purpose 33 supervisors of different call centers, who are in charge of monitoring the CSRs, have been interviewed with a questionnaire comprised of both close and open ended questions. The result shows there is scarcity of skilled English communicators which is one of the major barriers in the growth and development of the call centers. However, factors like product knowledge, intercultural communication skills, service personality are also crucial as they are integral for successful transaction and addressing them will pave the way for the progress of the industry. The result also implicitly indicates that mainstream education system in Bangladesh is still unable to produce competent English communicators. The findings of the study reveal that the current shortage of skilled manpower can further become more acute when call center industry grows in line with the expectation of the government. It is also revealed that the call center training institutes are incapable of delivering the kind of training required for the aspirant CSRs. This study pinpoints the necessity of future research in several directions to ensure a balance between the demand and supply of native like fluent English communicators for call center Industry in Bangladesh

Evaluating intelligibility in human translation and machine translation

Research in automated translation mostly aims to develop translation systems to further enhance the transfer of knowledge and information. This need of transfer has brought machine translation (MT) to show major steps in translation software development and encourages further research in various MT related areas. However, there have been no focused investigations of criteria for evaluation particularly evaluation that considers human evaluators and the reconciliation of human translation (HT) and MT. Thus, focusing on two attributes for evaluation, namely Accuracy and Intelligibility, a study was conducted to investigate translation evaluation criteria for content and language transfer through reconciliation of HT and MT evaluation based on human evaluators’ perception. The study focused on human evaluators’ expectation of range of criteria for HT and MT under the two attributes and the evaluation was tested on a machine system to observe the system’s performance in terms of Accuracy and Intelligibility. This paper reports the range of criteria to evaluate translation in terms of Intelligibility as expected by human evaluators in HT and MT in terms of content and language transfer. The study uses a mixed method approach with soft data and hard data collection. The results demonstrate that the range of each criteria identified for content evaluation in HT is expected to be higher than in MT. The implications of the study are described to provide an understanding of evaluation for human and automated translation in terms of Intelligibility

ESL tertiary studens' writing needs: a framework for a supplementary online writing program

This article discusses the elements essential for developing a supplementary online writing program for tertiary students of English as a Second Language (ESL) at University Teknologi MARA, Johor Branch, on the basis of a framework derived from the results of a needs-analysis study. The participants in this study were sixty Part Three Diploma students taking the BEL 311 compulsory general English proficiency course, and four writing lecturers, each of whom had taught the course for more than five years. The students filled out a needs-analysis questionnaire; the lecturers were interviewed. The findings revealed not only learning and writing problems among students but also, most importantly, the elements that are perceived by students and lectures as essential for developing a supplementary online writing program. These elements include aspects pertaining to critical thinking, autonomous learning, social interaction, and learner interest

Workplace writing in English: insights from Malaysian bank managers.

This paper discusses the findings of a series of interviews with three local commercial bank managers, describing workplace writing among Malaysian bank executives as writers of English as a second language (ESL). Existing studies on workplace writing are found to be limited in number, particularly those that investigate writing among bank executives. In addition, the status of English as a second language (L2) poses an inherent linguistic challenge for Malaysians and, thus, results in a different set of writing needs than for native writers of English. These factors illustrate the need for an in-depth investigation of the Malaysian banking institutions context. This study is part of a larger research, and data from this study was collected through semi-structured interviews,involving three managers as experienced informants. Their feedback was divided into four categories: the language of correspondence, the writing responsibilities at each bank, the roles of computers and writing software to assist in writing tasks, and the future of writing software programs in Malaysia. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1) English was the correspondence language in two out of the three banks; 2) writing was a frequent responsibility among most of the executives; 3) the executives were generally not provided any assistance with regard to writing; and, 4) a writing software program tailored for ESL writers was deemed a necessary form of assistance in consideration of the multiple tasks that need to be performed by the bank executives

Gender differences in the language use of Malaysian teen bloggers

Past researches have shown that there is a difference in language use between males and females attributed by their roles and society’s stereotyping or perceptions. Fast changing technology has provided another means for young people to express themselves using language as a tool. This study investigates the differences in language use by female and male Malaysian teenage bloggers who use blogs as a diary to express their daily issues about life. The language used is informal and similar to spoken language. Using a qualitative approach, this study aims to examine gender differences observed in the language features used by male and female teenagers in their blogs. The findings show that there are differences between male and female bloggers in the frequencies of five language features which are ‘intensifiers’, ‘hedging’, ‘tag questions’, ‘empty adjectives’and ‘adverbs’. The results of the study show that differences in language use among teenage bloggers may largely be attributed to gender

ESL students’ attitude, learning problems, and needs for online writing

In many instances, negative attitudes towards writing as well as other language learning problems have been linked to ESL students’ poor performance in writing. The study investigates ESL tertiary students’ writing attitude and the learning problems they face in BEL 311 writing course at MARA University of Technology. The participants in the study were 60 Part Three Diploma students taking BEL 311 course, and 4 writing instructors who have been teaching this course for more than 5 years. The students were given a set of needs analysis questionnaires, and the lecturers were interviewed. In addition, both groups of participants were asked to describe the important elements which they perceive as useful for a supplementary online writing program. The results indicate that the lecturers felt the majority of the students have negative attitude towards writing as they would procrastinate. They are also careless and dislike writing. The findings from the participants also revealed that they perceive writing in English as difficult and they dislike it. In addition, both groups of participants also perceive that the students’ learning problems, which affect their writing quality, include the lack of practice time being allocated in class, dull writing activities and the lack of emphasis towards critical thinking in their writing course. Furthermore, they suggested that a special online writing program which can act as a supplement for the course and help to enhance the learners’ writing ability and interest

Workplace written Literacy and its effect on the curriculum

Fennick et al. (1993) identify employees poor writing skills on different writing requirements between school and work. The results of a research conducted by Sidy (1999) indicated that the participants could not relate what they did in freshman writing classes to the types of writing they have to do in the workplace. The objective of this paper is to discuss workplace written literacy demands and the levels of written literacy among applicants for a job at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Data was collected using interviews and a written test. The findings suggest that there exists a mismatch between written literacy demands and the levels of the applicants. Hence, there is a need to look at the present curriculum in written literacy both at secondary and tertiary levels with a view to incorporate workplace literacy components

INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ USE OF COMPUTERS IN TEACHING ENGLISH: A CASE STUDY

In Vision 2020, Malaysia aspires to become a fully developed country by the year 2020 (The Malaysian Dream: Vision 2020). Later, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was announced in August 1995 to spearhead a number of nationwide IT projects that are intended to transform major sectors of Malaysian society including education using IT. One of the IT projects that was implemented was the Smart School project. Among its objectives was to prepare Malaysian citizens for the information age through an innovative education delivery process. This study specifically investigates teachers’ use of computers in teaching English as a second language (ESL) in a public school in Malaysia. It examines teachers’ attitudes, the challenges that they faced in using computers in teaching English, and their suggestions in order to overcome these challenges. Feedback gathered from questionnaires show that they faced many challenges that demotivate them from using computers in the classroom. The results of the study suggest that there must be strong support of both the instructional and administrative aspects of IT in the school so that teachers will be able to embrace IT fully in teaching English in their classroom