Helping students turn up for class: Does personality moderate the effectiveness of an implementation intention intervention?

Class attendance is an important determinant of academic success yet a significant proportion of students miss class. The present study investigated the deliberative and personality correlates of class attendance alongside an implementation intention intervention that asked students to specify when, where, and how they would attend class. Class attendance was found to be a function of conscientiousness (more conscientious students were more likely to attend), openness to experience (more open students were less likely to attend), goal intentions (more motivated students were more likely to attend), and the implementation intention intervention (students who formed specific plans about when, where, and how to attend were more likely to attend). Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between the implementation intention intervention and conscientiousness; the intervention had a greater impact on class attendance for low or moderately conscientious students than for highly conscientious students.     

任务教学法在非英语专业硕士研究生英语听说教学中的探索

研究生英语水平相差悬殊,尤其是听说水平与研究生英语教学大纲所规定的要求相差甚远,教师采取什么教学方法,如何调动学生的学习积极性,怎样帮助他们在有限的课堂时间内使其英语听说产生大的飞跃,达到教学大纲要求就成为英语教师的首要思考和实践的课题。本文结合教学实践,探讨了任务教学法在英语听说教学中的应用。     

基于“雨课堂”的混合式教学模式在大学英语教学中的应用研究

大学英语学习推崇引导性和多样性,以应用型本科院校一年级162名学生为研究对象,在大学英语教学中推进基于"雨课堂"的混合式教学模式,以SPSS分析问卷调查的定量研究和随机半结构访谈的定性研究发现,学生对于这种教学模式的接受程度较高。在教学效果上,学生从自身角度对这种教学模式给与了较好的评价,认为能提高自身的语言应用能力,尤其是写作和阅读能力。学生对于该模式的接受程度和其英语能力提升程度成一定的在正比。在大学英语教育中推进基于"雨课堂"的混合式教学模式,对提升传统教学模式具有一定的指导意义。     

An action research study into the role of student negotiation in enhancing perceived student engagement during English speaking classes at university level in Turkey

A major issue in English language teaching in Turkey and other monolingual countries is the teaching of spoken English. This article reports the initial and final stages of an action research study which used student negotiation to enhance student engagement in speaking classes. The research was conducted in the English Language Teaching Department of a university in Turkey and involved the provision of student-negotiated speaking classes for one term during which qualitative and quantitative data collected from students through questionnaires on a weekly basis informed the design of the speaking activities. The results of content analysis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed that student negotiation promoted student engagement through providing speaking classes appropriate to students’ needs and interests, which resulted in more positive perceived speaking ability and greater willingness to communicate. This study demonstrates the significance of student negotiation in speaking classes and has implications for enhancing student engagement in speaking classroom activities.     

基于网络多媒体平台的英语听说课教改报告

针对金陵科技学院300名大一新生,进行为期一学期的基于网络多媒体平台的英语听说课教改实践表明:基于网络多媒体平台的英语听说课可以显著提高学生的听力成绩和口语水平;学生对这种教学模式也普遍认可;这种教学模式对提高学生的英语学习动机,也能起到一定的作用。     

韩国高校大学英语教育现状考察

中国与韩国都是非英语国家,两国的大学英语教育具有相通之处。韩国大学英语教育在较大程度上体现了以学生为主体的特点,重视培养学生的听说交流能力,课程设置能充分体现个性化与开放性的特点,网络与多媒体等教学手段的运用有利于学生主动参与,小班授课突出学生主体,聘请外教为学生创造了用英语交流的机会。了解韩国的大学英语教育现状,可为我国的大学英语教育带来启示。     

An action research study designed to implement student negotiation to improve speaking classroom practice in Turkey

This paper reports the second stage of an action research study designed to improve the effectiveness of speaking classes through negotiating the lesson contents with students. The data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and observations as a way of eliciting students’ views. The research, conducted in an English language teaching department at a university in Turkey, comprised eight weekly-based interventions that involved planning, action, observation, and reflection, in which students were given a voice and classroom activities were designed accordingly. Student negotiation allowed for the identification of both structural and affective factors influencing the quality of speaking classes. The teacher’s roles in activities, the number of students in group work activities, the level of control in speaking activities, and the role of input were found to be issues worth considering in designing speaking classes. Issues such as finding the activity ‘interesting’ and ‘useful’, ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘being competitive’ also influenced the effectiveness of activities. Involving students in this action research study promoted positive attitudes towards classes since students reported feeling valued and important.     

Non-native English speaking pre-service teachers in an EFL context: examining experiences through borderland discourse

This study examined borderland discourse emergent from the practicum experiences of non-native English speaking pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a Thai primary school. Borderland discourse is defined as a space where personal and professional constructs intersect, which is often in a state of dissonance. Over a ten-week practicum period, the PSTs narrated their experiences through a dialogic reflective journal with their teacher-educator. A main issue was the dissonance between PSTs’ expectations with the reality of their teaching context. Some of which were the Thai students’ inability to communicate in English and the use of a syllabus that did not reflect the students’ language abilities. This led to a renegotiation of PSTs’ pedagogical approaches. This study also highlighted potential challenges that non-native English speaking PSTs may face if teaching in a context that is linguistically or culturally different from theirs, as well as a brief account of English language education in Thailand.     

Native-English Speaking Instructors Teaching Writing in China

This article presents two separate but related studies on native-English speaking (NES) instructors’ teaching writing practice in Chinese universities. One study is a case study that explores the teaching practice of three NES instructors’ writing instruction in a southern Chinese university as well as students’ responses to their practice. Another study takes on an auto-ethnographic approach, in which the researcher retrospectively examines his own writing instruction as a college NES instructor in China with his new understanding of Bakhtin’s dialogic theory and theories of multi/biliteracy. The pairing of these two studies, methodologically and conceptually, illustrates the NES instructors’ teaching experiences in China from both an outsider and an insider’s perspectives. The findings of the studies indicate that one of the key factors that hinder the effectiveness in teaching writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts is the doctrine of ‘native fallacy’ widespread in the EFL field. This is an ethnocentric view of treating English as a hegemonic practice that drives EFL students to reach native-like English proficiency in both their English speaking and writing. The article concludes with a call for a paradigm shift in teaching and learning in the EFL field, which requires fundamental changes in the view of English from ‘native English’ to World Englishes or an international language for today’s globalized community.     

合作学习在高职英语教学中的应用及启示

新的高职英语教学大纲明确指出“倡导体验、实践、参与、合作与交流的学习方式,发展听、说、读、写、译的综合语言技能”。新一轮课程改革要求学生自主探索,主动获取,进行合作学习。鉴于目前高职高专英语教学状况,有必要探求一种有效的教学方法：合作学习是一种最有效、最实用的教学策略之一。这种学习方法是让学生在小组里一起学习以完成共同的学习任务,将合作学习运用于高职高专英语教学,对改变课堂以“教师为中心”为以“学生为中心”,变“填鸭式”的教学为自主学习具有现实意义。     

大学英语自主学习研究及对听说能力的培养

现代经济社会的发展迫切要求大学生具备良好的英语听说能力。而现阶段的大学英语教学却无法满足这一要求。作者从学生自主学习研究入手,对我们大学生的英语学习,尤其是对听说能力的培养提出自己的看法。     

网考背景下的大学生英语听说能力培养模式探索

基于对我国网络环境下的大学英语听说行动研究的总结,该研究力图找出提高大学生听说能力和培养其自主能力的教学模式。在网络听力教学中,元认知知识传授与融入教学内容的元认知策略运用、形成性评估体系的引入,学生为主体的档案袋学习记录的建立,是有效听力教学模式的重要环节。四、六级网考的实施促进英语口语能力培养的研究。英语听说综合能力培养教学模式还未形成,在听说任务的科学组合、口语评价标准的确立、口试的设计实施等方面的行动研究有待深入。     

Exploring graduate and undergraduate course evaluations administered on paper and online: a case study

The purpose of this study was to analyse the students’ evaluations of the course and instructor for all statistics courses offered during fall semester 2009 at a large university in the southern United States. Data were collected and analysed for course evaluations administered both online and on paper to students in both undergraduate and graduate courses. Unlike most previous studies on this subject, class section rather than student was treated as the unit of analysis. It was of specific interest to verify prior research findings that evaluation surveys administered online would not result in lower course and instructor ratings and lower response rates. The results showed that there is not sufficient evidence within the collected data to conclude that either course and instructor ratings or response rates are lower for evaluations administered online (online evaluations) than they are for evaluations administered on paper (paper evaluations). Of secondary interest was whether class ratings would be associated with students’ attendance and a comparison of variability among answers for undergraduate vs. graduate students. It was observed that class and teacher ratings were not related to students’ attendance and individual students did not tend to give the same answer for every question on their survey.     

建构主义理论在大学英语听说课中的应用研究

目前大学生英语听说能力较差和教育部对大学毕业生的英语能力要求之间有一定的差距。为了解决这个问题,有效地提高大学生的英语听说能力,我们尝试将建构主义教学理论应用到大学英语听说课中,进行了一个学期的教学实验,并取得了良好的效果,可为今后的教学改革提供一定的参考。     

大学英语口语第二课堂活动情况调查

英语口语第二课堂活动能创造更多的英语语言环境,促进交际法教学的开展,促进学生自主学习,弥补课堂教学的不足,同时亦是增强英语教学效果,实现新的课程教学要求和观念改革的一个有效途径。对云南师范大学学生开展英语第二课堂活动的情况进行了调查,并针对存在的问题,以及如何进一步完善第二课堂活动的模式和可行性提出了建议。     

高职英语第二课堂活动开展的研究与实践

第二课堂是相对课堂教学而言的,是指学校在教学计划、教学大纲规定的课堂教学活动以外引导和组织学生利用课外时间而开展的各种学习活动,符合教学目标但不受教学大纲限制,是配合教学大纲相对独立的教学体系。文章从高职英语第二课堂对提高高职学生英语的综合应用能力出发。积极探索研究英语第二课堂活动的实践意义。通过创设丰富多样的英语第二课堂活动,能提供更多的运用英语的机会,提高学生英语综合应用能力。     

To attend or not to attend? Why some students chose school and others reject it

This article considers the issues of attendance and non‐attendance, the latter of which has been recently linked with ‘behaviour’ in a range of policy initiatives in England. John Dwyfor Davies and John Lee review some of the existing material on non‐attendance and then draw on data they have collected in one large English city. The authors summarise their discussions with 13 non‐attending young people and some of their parents, as well as conversations with 35 students who have a satisfactory attendance record, together with a perspective from educational professionals. The authors address the issue of why certain students, who apparently will gain little from school, in terms of certification, continue to attend school. They argue that ignoring the reasons why such students actually attend school is a major oversight in current research.     

混合式教学的“讲练分离”英语演讲课程设计

混合式教学是传统教学与网络化教学相结合的一种教学模式,是目前高校教学改革的一个重要研究方向。文章借鉴混合式教学理念,设计了英语演讲课程“讲练分离”的课堂教学改革思路,提出以实践为主要特征的英语演讲课程应在学生在线自学的基础上,给予学生充分的课堂操练机会。阐述该课程的线上、线下活动设计、课程实施及课程评价方法。教学实践和问卷调查结果表明,讲练分离的混合式教学模式得到了学生的认可,也有助于推动传统课堂教学改革。     

The self‐assessed portfolio: a case study

This paper reports on a successful attempt to use the portfolio as a sole assessment tool for an upper level language arts course at an English‐medium university in Lebanon. Over four consecutive years in the spring semester, the teacher/researcher devised a special syllabus based on the teaching/learning of text discourses and other language tasks emphasizing skills to improve the English language of the learners. Only students’ portfolios were used to evaluate students’ work. The learners, majoring in Education or English, worked on various language tasks. They presented and assessed their work according to rubrics. Learners had to self‐reflect on each task, have a one‐to‐one conference with the class teacher, and assign a letter grade to their work. Results indicated that though using only portfolios for assessment purposes was a rather difficult task, it was still more effective than traditional assessment. Working on self‐assessed portfolios actively engaged learners in the learning process.     

移动技术促进英语听说教学的实证研究

社会发展的需要对大学生的英语听说能力提出了较高的要求。移动技术的泛在性、及时性、交互性和多媒体性对于变革传统的英语课堂教学模式具有重要的意义,有利于与课堂教学实现优势互补。社会文化理论和移动技术支持下的大学英语课堂教学模式包括：课前的移动自主学习、课中的教师教授与学生互动、课后的移动式合作学习以及贯穿课堂内外的形成性评价等环节。在两组大学生教学班级中应用该模式,经过一个学期的实验证明：混合式听说教学模式在提高大学生的英语听说能力方面更具优势,有助于激发学生的学习兴趣,可以显著提高大学生的听、说、读、写成绩,教师在该教学模式中也得到了很大的提升。