English learning is influenced by many factors which affect directly or indirectly the students' English acquirement. Among these, the learner himself or herself is the most direct and important. This passage emphasi...English learning is influenced by many factors which affect directly or indirectly the students' English acquirement. Among these, the learner himself or herself is the most direct and important. This passage emphasizes the point of English educational psychology and from it we can see that the motivation factor, ability factor and intellect factor affect the students' English learning most. Girls' internal motivation is stronger than boys' in the foreign language studying and most of the girls aim at gaining English knowledge. The process of English learning itself can make them contented and basically they will not be interrupted by the external factors.展开更多
The teaching of English for Science and Technology (EST) is generally regarded as one of the most significant developments in English language pedagogy in recent years. EST is concerned with meeting the specific lan...The teaching of English for Science and Technology (EST) is generally regarded as one of the most significant developments in English language pedagogy in recent years. EST is concerned with meeting the specific language needs of learners in various scientific and technological fields. These needs should be taken into consideration when planning and implementing English language courses or specialized courses to students of science and technology. This research is an attempt to investigate some of the problems involved in the teaching and learning of EST and suggest possible solutions. The research will focus on the reading comprehension of scientific and technical texts written in English, the teaching and learning of functional grammar, and the teaching and learning of lexis. These are regarded as some of the most important skills and sub-skills to be acquired by the students of science and technology to help them gain scientific information in English and reach a satisfactory level of achievement in their academic studies. The contention here is that it is in need to adopt a new set of assumptions and criteria specifically relevant to EST instead of employing those of General-English courses being used in the foundation and non-foundation years. This is in line with the basic premise of ESP (English for Special Purpose) and foundation courses which are supposed to prepare students for longer and more difficult tasks in their relevant fields of study. It is hoped that the findings of this research paper will be fruitful and relevant to other ESP courses in addition to those of EST.展开更多
Learner Autonomy (LA) is the desirable goal of the education. To date, many Learner Autonomy training programs have been carried out in foreign language teaching. Cooperative Learning (CL) is a language teaching a...Learner Autonomy (LA) is the desirable goal of the education. To date, many Learner Autonomy training programs have been carried out in foreign language teaching. Cooperative Learning (CL) is a language teaching and learning strategy which gets learners actively and cooperatively involved in learning a foreign language in groups. Both of them have been respectively advocated from pedagogical point of view and from the perspective of philosophy. However, being autonomous does not necessarily mean learning alone. Language learners should learn cooperatively and autonomously. It is the author's contention that CL is a good method to promote LA. CL has positive effects on both students' readiness and their ability to be more autonomous. CL enhances self-esteem and self-confidence, increases high motivation, encourages learners' responsibility for learning, enhances self-management skills, increases support for language learners to move from interdependence to independence. The paper stresses in the end that promoting LA is the teacher's long-term pedagogic goal.展开更多
The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH (noun phrase accessibility hierarchy), comparison and contrast of some aspect...The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH (noun phrase accessibility hierarchy), comparison and contrast of some aspects of English and Chinese relative pronoun, the paper conducts two experiments, and has proved the hypotheses that students' performance generally follows the hierarchy of NPAH and students do have problems with relative pronoun involving prepositions. Besides, some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching are discussed.展开更多
With a brief review of the ESP (English for Special Purpose) teaching in Medical Schools over the past 30 years, this paper elaborates on the changes and situation of English teaching and leaming in some Medical Sch...With a brief review of the ESP (English for Special Purpose) teaching in Medical Schools over the past 30 years, this paper elaborates on the changes and situation of English teaching and leaming in some Medical Schools. Through a survey which throws light on the importance of ESP, the paper analyzes the problems facing Medical Schools, such as materials suitable for medical students who want to cultivate their ability in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating in their own field and teachers who are supposed to be qualified for medical English teaching, and then discusses the top priorities in these Medical Schools and examines what has been done and will be done in order to work out practicable approaches to meet the requirements of medical students.展开更多
Many assessment skills are quite conducive for administering practical and effective tests and especially to ELL students. There is no perfect assessment to ELL students, and every assessment has its own limitations. ...Many assessment skills are quite conducive for administering practical and effective tests and especially to ELL students. There is no perfect assessment to ELL students, and every assessment has its own limitations. The testing scores are influenced by a wide range of factors, such as the level of effort, study habits, the learning atmosphere, and physical state and so on. Therefore, self-concept and academic achievement are highly correlated.展开更多
This paper describes the development of a Chinese version of the ISM (Inventory of School Motivation). Forward and backward translation strategies are used. Further, rigorous evaluation procedures are conducted to c...This paper describes the development of a Chinese version of the ISM (Inventory of School Motivation). Forward and backward translation strategies are used. Further, rigorous evaluation procedures are conducted to compare the form and meaning of the original English version and the back-translated version. The translation procedures ensure that the Chinese version is as equivalent as possible to the English version. Grammatical and syntactical issues with translation will be discussed in the paper.展开更多
English has become the medium for communication in so many areas, and children are the hope of the future and shoulder the duties to structure the future. Children's English becomes more important and spreads all ove...English has become the medium for communication in so many areas, and children are the hope of the future and shoulder the duties to structure the future. Children's English becomes more important and spreads all over the world, especially in recent years. Children's English is not perfect and there exist its own disadvantages. This paper gives four optimizations and suggestions in teaching children's English in order to solve the problem. Then it lists several relations to the children's English study, and these four relations are very important because they are the keys to lead the children's English to a healthy and developing road. And in the next chapter, it talks about the trends of the children's English in the future and lists the reasons why these kinds of trends appear. At last, the author overlooks the whole paper and gives a conclusion, which shows that children's English has a great potentiality in the future in China.展开更多
This article evaluated the constructivist pedagogical effectiveness of a TM-aided specialized translation project tested on 16 undergraduates at a technological university using student reflections and the questionnai...This article evaluated the constructivist pedagogical effectiveness of a TM-aided specialized translation project tested on 16 undergraduates at a technological university using student reflections and the questionnaire for qualitative analysis. The results showed that TMs-students-instructor interaction facilitated the learning of specialized translation strategies, meeting the constructivist educational principle of "interaction". In addition, students effectively constructed new translation knowledge through the negotiation of the differences between student and professional translators' translations, concurring with the constructivist educational principle of "conflict resolution". Finally, students successfully learned technical skills of the Trados tool through hands-on practice, and cognitively acquired specialized translation knowledge through reflections writing and oral presentations, fitting the constructivist educational principle of "active participation". Overall, most students' positive responses justified the constructive educational effectiveness of TM-aided specialized translation through TMs consultation, peer help and the instructor support in the self-paced and student-centered learning environment.展开更多
Peer response activities take place in different modes, and the different modes affect the roles participants play. These modes can be written, oral, or a combination of both. The purpose of this study is to see how t...Peer response activities take place in different modes, and the different modes affect the roles participants play. These modes can be written, oral, or a combination of both. The purpose of this study is to see how teacher-response, peer-response, and a combination of both in oral mode can be effective in accomplishing the learning/teaching goals of both the students and the teachers in a collaborative Iranian setting to achieve this goal, the researcher chose 60 students as the eligible members of the sample participating in this study. The participants--15 males and 45 females--were all Iranian Persian native speakers aged between 22 and 25 majoring in English translation at university level. They were assigned to three homogeneous groups based on the obtained scores on Oxford Placement Test and a sample paragraph on a given topic, emphasizing the expository genre. They covered five topics in a sequence of ten written texts--before and after receiving feedback--over a 15-week semester. All the written tasks were collected and scored analytically to track any improvement and assay the effects of different feedback sources on students' writing performances. The results revealed that: First, oral feedback had a significant effect on students' revised drafts and students incorporated the comments provided by the teacher, peers, or both in the process of draft editing; Second, of the three feedback sources the students benefited from teacher's feedback more than peers' feedback; and finally, the collaborative oral feedback model had a significant effect on students' writing. In addition, this method provided a practical foreign-language-learning experience for the Iranian students to share their common linguistic goals and gave a new sense to collaborative learning tasks in EFL writing classes.展开更多
This paper concerns study of learning strategies from language learners. In the light of the types and models of strategies found in the study of ESL (English as a Second Language) learners' strategies abroad, the ...This paper concerns study of learning strategies from language learners. In the light of the types and models of strategies found in the study of ESL (English as a Second Language) learners' strategies abroad, the authors have summed up and induced 3 group learners' writing strategies stated in their reports, with which they have designed the surveying tool by using factor analysis. And then, the authors use descriptive and 1-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) analysis of SPSS16.0 (Statistical Program for Social Science) to examine the differences of strategies used by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in China, overseas Chinese ESL learners in Northern Americas and Northern American ENL (English as a Native Language) learners. It is concluded by he results of the study that ENL and ESL learners are good at using various writing strategies. And there are significant differences in using writing strategies between ENL/ESL learners and EFL learners. The authors also conclude that the differences between ESL group and ENL group are not significant, much less than the ones between ESL group and EFL group. The authors make comparative analysis on the causes to the findings on the aspects of class teaching approaches and language learning surroundings, which bring out implications for teaching of English writing in China.展开更多
After perceiving a common phenomenon of English learning at college in China, this paper presents a case study of motivation. In this study, a questionnaire is conducted twice among 156 Chinese college students when t...After perceiving a common phenomenon of English learning at college in China, this paper presents a case study of motivation. In this study, a questionnaire is conducted twice among 156 Chinese college students when they are sophomores and seniors. It intends to identify some components of foreign language learning motivation and probes into the causes for the changing motivations of students throughout 4-year college education. The findings suggest that the instrumental motivation plays a crucial role in foreign language learning context.展开更多
文摘English learning is influenced by many factors which affect directly or indirectly the students' English acquirement. Among these, the learner himself or herself is the most direct and important. This passage emphasizes the point of English educational psychology and from it we can see that the motivation factor, ability factor and intellect factor affect the students' English learning most. Girls' internal motivation is stronger than boys' in the foreign language studying and most of the girls aim at gaining English knowledge. The process of English learning itself can make them contented and basically they will not be interrupted by the external factors.
文摘The teaching of English for Science and Technology (EST) is generally regarded as one of the most significant developments in English language pedagogy in recent years. EST is concerned with meeting the specific language needs of learners in various scientific and technological fields. These needs should be taken into consideration when planning and implementing English language courses or specialized courses to students of science and technology. This research is an attempt to investigate some of the problems involved in the teaching and learning of EST and suggest possible solutions. The research will focus on the reading comprehension of scientific and technical texts written in English, the teaching and learning of functional grammar, and the teaching and learning of lexis. These are regarded as some of the most important skills and sub-skills to be acquired by the students of science and technology to help them gain scientific information in English and reach a satisfactory level of achievement in their academic studies. The contention here is that it is in need to adopt a new set of assumptions and criteria specifically relevant to EST instead of employing those of General-English courses being used in the foundation and non-foundation years. This is in line with the basic premise of ESP (English for Special Purpose) and foundation courses which are supposed to prepare students for longer and more difficult tasks in their relevant fields of study. It is hoped that the findings of this research paper will be fruitful and relevant to other ESP courses in addition to those of EST.
文摘Learner Autonomy (LA) is the desirable goal of the education. To date, many Learner Autonomy training programs have been carried out in foreign language teaching. Cooperative Learning (CL) is a language teaching and learning strategy which gets learners actively and cooperatively involved in learning a foreign language in groups. Both of them have been respectively advocated from pedagogical point of view and from the perspective of philosophy. However, being autonomous does not necessarily mean learning alone. Language learners should learn cooperatively and autonomously. It is the author's contention that CL is a good method to promote LA. CL has positive effects on both students' readiness and their ability to be more autonomous. CL enhances self-esteem and self-confidence, increases high motivation, encourages learners' responsibility for learning, enhances self-management skills, increases support for language learners to move from interdependence to independence. The paper stresses in the end that promoting LA is the teacher's long-term pedagogic goal.
文摘The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH (noun phrase accessibility hierarchy), comparison and contrast of some aspects of English and Chinese relative pronoun, the paper conducts two experiments, and has proved the hypotheses that students' performance generally follows the hierarchy of NPAH and students do have problems with relative pronoun involving prepositions. Besides, some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching are discussed.
文摘With a brief review of the ESP (English for Special Purpose) teaching in Medical Schools over the past 30 years, this paper elaborates on the changes and situation of English teaching and leaming in some Medical Schools. Through a survey which throws light on the importance of ESP, the paper analyzes the problems facing Medical Schools, such as materials suitable for medical students who want to cultivate their ability in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating in their own field and teachers who are supposed to be qualified for medical English teaching, and then discusses the top priorities in these Medical Schools and examines what has been done and will be done in order to work out practicable approaches to meet the requirements of medical students.
文摘Many assessment skills are quite conducive for administering practical and effective tests and especially to ELL students. There is no perfect assessment to ELL students, and every assessment has its own limitations. The testing scores are influenced by a wide range of factors, such as the level of effort, study habits, the learning atmosphere, and physical state and so on. Therefore, self-concept and academic achievement are highly correlated.
文摘This paper describes the development of a Chinese version of the ISM (Inventory of School Motivation). Forward and backward translation strategies are used. Further, rigorous evaluation procedures are conducted to compare the form and meaning of the original English version and the back-translated version. The translation procedures ensure that the Chinese version is as equivalent as possible to the English version. Grammatical and syntactical issues with translation will be discussed in the paper.
文摘English has become the medium for communication in so many areas, and children are the hope of the future and shoulder the duties to structure the future. Children's English becomes more important and spreads all over the world, especially in recent years. Children's English is not perfect and there exist its own disadvantages. This paper gives four optimizations and suggestions in teaching children's English in order to solve the problem. Then it lists several relations to the children's English study, and these four relations are very important because they are the keys to lead the children's English to a healthy and developing road. And in the next chapter, it talks about the trends of the children's English in the future and lists the reasons why these kinds of trends appear. At last, the author overlooks the whole paper and gives a conclusion, which shows that children's English has a great potentiality in the future in China.
文摘This article evaluated the constructivist pedagogical effectiveness of a TM-aided specialized translation project tested on 16 undergraduates at a technological university using student reflections and the questionnaire for qualitative analysis. The results showed that TMs-students-instructor interaction facilitated the learning of specialized translation strategies, meeting the constructivist educational principle of "interaction". In addition, students effectively constructed new translation knowledge through the negotiation of the differences between student and professional translators' translations, concurring with the constructivist educational principle of "conflict resolution". Finally, students successfully learned technical skills of the Trados tool through hands-on practice, and cognitively acquired specialized translation knowledge through reflections writing and oral presentations, fitting the constructivist educational principle of "active participation". Overall, most students' positive responses justified the constructive educational effectiveness of TM-aided specialized translation through TMs consultation, peer help and the instructor support in the self-paced and student-centered learning environment.
文摘Peer response activities take place in different modes, and the different modes affect the roles participants play. These modes can be written, oral, or a combination of both. The purpose of this study is to see how teacher-response, peer-response, and a combination of both in oral mode can be effective in accomplishing the learning/teaching goals of both the students and the teachers in a collaborative Iranian setting to achieve this goal, the researcher chose 60 students as the eligible members of the sample participating in this study. The participants--15 males and 45 females--were all Iranian Persian native speakers aged between 22 and 25 majoring in English translation at university level. They were assigned to three homogeneous groups based on the obtained scores on Oxford Placement Test and a sample paragraph on a given topic, emphasizing the expository genre. They covered five topics in a sequence of ten written texts--before and after receiving feedback--over a 15-week semester. All the written tasks were collected and scored analytically to track any improvement and assay the effects of different feedback sources on students' writing performances. The results revealed that: First, oral feedback had a significant effect on students' revised drafts and students incorporated the comments provided by the teacher, peers, or both in the process of draft editing; Second, of the three feedback sources the students benefited from teacher's feedback more than peers' feedback; and finally, the collaborative oral feedback model had a significant effect on students' writing. In addition, this method provided a practical foreign-language-learning experience for the Iranian students to share their common linguistic goals and gave a new sense to collaborative learning tasks in EFL writing classes.
文摘This paper concerns study of learning strategies from language learners. In the light of the types and models of strategies found in the study of ESL (English as a Second Language) learners' strategies abroad, the authors have summed up and induced 3 group learners' writing strategies stated in their reports, with which they have designed the surveying tool by using factor analysis. And then, the authors use descriptive and 1-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) analysis of SPSS16.0 (Statistical Program for Social Science) to examine the differences of strategies used by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in China, overseas Chinese ESL learners in Northern Americas and Northern American ENL (English as a Native Language) learners. It is concluded by he results of the study that ENL and ESL learners are good at using various writing strategies. And there are significant differences in using writing strategies between ENL/ESL learners and EFL learners. The authors also conclude that the differences between ESL group and ENL group are not significant, much less than the ones between ESL group and EFL group. The authors make comparative analysis on the causes to the findings on the aspects of class teaching approaches and language learning surroundings, which bring out implications for teaching of English writing in China.
文摘After perceiving a common phenomenon of English learning at college in China, this paper presents a case study of motivation. In this study, a questionnaire is conducted twice among 156 Chinese college students when they are sophomores and seniors. It intends to identify some components of foreign language learning motivation and probes into the causes for the changing motivations of students throughout 4-year college education. The findings suggest that the instrumental motivation plays a crucial role in foreign language learning context.