In today＇s globalized world with English as the lingua franca, many countries, including the United Arab Emirates （UAE）, are focusing on English as a medium of instruction （EMI）. Due to the many expatriates resid...In today＇s globalized world with English as the lingua franca, many countries, including the United Arab Emirates （UAE）, are focusing on English as a medium of instruction （EMI）. Due to the many expatriates resident in the UAE English has become the main language of business, industry, and higher education. This paper looks at one of those English medium universities with an American curriculum. Since most American curriculums require substantial amounts of writing, it is important that students become competent at writing in their second language at this particular institution. This paper discusses how a novel assignment, allowing English as a foreign language （EFL） students to present readings in the classroom at an EMI university in the UAE, has helped them become both better readers and writers. Since the majority of the students are native speakers of Arabic, the project was designed with their oral traditions and proficiency in mind.展开更多
Writing task is an integral part of education in ESL （English as a Second Language） at the foundation level. It has been observed that foundation level 3 students of Arab Open University have an insufficient knowled...Writing task is an integral part of education in ESL （English as a Second Language） at the foundation level. It has been observed that foundation level 3 students of Arab Open University have an insufficient knowledge of vocabulary which is reflected on their writing, as their usage of vocabulary is confined to a number of limited common words. This research explores the effect of collaborative writing on students＇ vocabulary acquisition. All the writing tasks were related to educational topics in order to provide students with the lexical items related to the same subject. This study took place in one of the foundation level 3 classes at Arab Open University, Oman branch. Fourteen anonymous Arab students for whom English is considered as the second language participated in this study. All students are in the intermediate level of English language proficiency. For each writing task, five collocations were selected to be taught in the class over a period of five weeks. The achieved outcomes revealed contrary results to the previous studies that had shown the effective impact of collaborative writing. This study has discussed the contrary impact of collaborative writing on improving the learners＇ vocabulary acquisition in addition to the challenges students faced during collaborative writing task. Finally, this research provides recommendations for the effective collaborative writing in the foundation students＇ language proficiency.展开更多
Teaching writing to Arab EFL learners in general, and to students who have never been exposed to an Anglo-Saxon foreign language in particular in institutions of higher education, through incorporating culturally mean...Teaching writing to Arab EFL learners in general, and to students who have never been exposed to an Anglo-Saxon foreign language in particular in institutions of higher education, through incorporating culturally meaningful learning materials, can actually be enjoyable and fruitful. However, it can also be very challenging given the sociocultural and linguistic background of the learners as well as other factors related to the nature of the imported teaching materials from overseas. The challenge then is identifying and selecting materials for each particular class, as well as how to get students motivated and successfully engaged in the process of writing. This paper enlightens educators and language programs managers and planners about the mechanism of the writing process while incorporating the cultural components relevant to the learner, as well as drawing their attention to the benefits of engaging students in the actual process of writing and boosting their motivation via a meaningful socioculturally based approach.展开更多
文摘In today＇s globalized world with English as the lingua franca, many countries, including the United Arab Emirates （UAE）, are focusing on English as a medium of instruction （EMI）. Due to the many expatriates resident in the UAE English has become the main language of business, industry, and higher education. This paper looks at one of those English medium universities with an American curriculum. Since most American curriculums require substantial amounts of writing, it is important that students become competent at writing in their second language at this particular institution. This paper discusses how a novel assignment, allowing English as a foreign language （EFL） students to present readings in the classroom at an EMI university in the UAE, has helped them become both better readers and writers. Since the majority of the students are native speakers of Arabic, the project was designed with their oral traditions and proficiency in mind.
文摘Writing task is an integral part of education in ESL （English as a Second Language） at the foundation level. It has been observed that foundation level 3 students of Arab Open University have an insufficient knowledge of vocabulary which is reflected on their writing, as their usage of vocabulary is confined to a number of limited common words. This research explores the effect of collaborative writing on students＇ vocabulary acquisition. All the writing tasks were related to educational topics in order to provide students with the lexical items related to the same subject. This study took place in one of the foundation level 3 classes at Arab Open University, Oman branch. Fourteen anonymous Arab students for whom English is considered as the second language participated in this study. All students are in the intermediate level of English language proficiency. For each writing task, five collocations were selected to be taught in the class over a period of five weeks. The achieved outcomes revealed contrary results to the previous studies that had shown the effective impact of collaborative writing. This study has discussed the contrary impact of collaborative writing on improving the learners＇ vocabulary acquisition in addition to the challenges students faced during collaborative writing task. Finally, this research provides recommendations for the effective collaborative writing in the foundation students＇ language proficiency.
文摘Teaching writing to Arab EFL learners in general, and to students who have never been exposed to an Anglo-Saxon foreign language in particular in institutions of higher education, through incorporating culturally meaningful learning materials, can actually be enjoyable and fruitful. However, it can also be very challenging given the sociocultural and linguistic background of the learners as well as other factors related to the nature of the imported teaching materials from overseas. The challenge then is identifying and selecting materials for each particular class, as well as how to get students motivated and successfully engaged in the process of writing. This paper enlightens educators and language programs managers and planners about the mechanism of the writing process while incorporating the cultural components relevant to the learner, as well as drawing their attention to the benefits of engaging students in the actual process of writing and boosting their motivation via a meaningful socioculturally based approach.
