Search results

1 – 10 of over 4000
Book part
Publication date: 1 November 2012

Jessie Grace U. Rubrico

Contextualizing grammar in second language (L2) classrooms implies making grammar constructs relevant to the learners’ world; affording learners the opportunities to better…

Abstract

Contextualizing grammar in second language (L2) classrooms implies making grammar constructs relevant to the learners’ world; affording learners the opportunities to better comprehend and apply these concepts in their own milieus. This instructional design (ID) has been devised to contextualize grammar and to explore learner engagement of pre-service English teachers through Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) and Task-based Learning (TBL) in a technology-driven learning environment. CAL encompasses technology-aided discussions, multi-media presentations, online tests and exercises, and social media deployment. TBL, on the other hand, contextualizes grammar using technology and social network in planning, executing, and presenting four assigned tasks: picture essay, brochure design, dialogue composition, and comic strips illustration. Facebook is the e-portfolio of the class, archiving all group and individual output. The CAL-TBL tandem is propelled by group initiatives and class collaboration evident in group discussions and planning, microteaching, task presentations, peer reviews, and self-evaluations. These initiatives engage learners; empowering students to collaboratively take active part and responsibility for their own learning. The three-hour-class meets every week in a computer laboratory. The post-semester feedback and online poll course design review as well as the University Course Evaluation comments have shown that the ID, from the learners’ perspective, is effective in contextualizing grammar and in engaging learners.

Details

Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Social Technologies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-239-4

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2019

Ali Akbar Moeen, Daryoush Nejadansari and Azizolla Dabaghi

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of teaching grammar through implicit and explicit approach by applying scaffolding technique on learners’ speaking abilities…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of teaching grammar through implicit and explicit approach by applying scaffolding technique on learners’ speaking abilities including: accuracy, fluency and complexity.

Design/methodology/approach

To this end, 90 BA students of architecture in Yazd Azad University were selected and homogenized through Oxford Placement Test. They were assigned to three groups each including 30 participants, and took an IELTS speaking as pre-test to ensure that they had the same speaking ability prior to the begging of the experiment. In the course of the study, the first experimental group (EG1) received implicit instruction through scaffolding, and the second experimental group (EG2) was taught through explicit instruction. In contrast, control group did not receive any kind of grammar teaching. After the completion of the treatment, all groups took speaking post-test.

Findings

The results of the study showed that while both explicit and implicit teaching of grammar through scaffolding had a significant impact on learners’ speaking fluency, implicit teaching in comparison with explicit teaching was more significantly effective on learners’ speaking fluency. Similarly, both implicit and explicit teaching of grammar through scaffolding had significant impact on learners’ speaking accuracy and complexity, but explicit teaching compared to implicit teaching was more significantly effective.

Practical implications

The results of the study are mainly beneficial to teachers in the way that they can teach grammar in a more efficient way, and consequently improve learners’ speaking. In addition, curriculum developers and second language learners will benefit from the results of this research.

Originality/value

There has always been a controversy over an effective way to teach speaking skill in EFL classes over the last decades. In this regard, one of the most controversial approaches to teaching speaking arose from the dichotomy of teaching grammar through implicit or explicit teaching of rules. This paper has originality in that it delves into this controversial issue at length and in details.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 October 2018

Katina Zammit

This study aims to seek to demonstrate how explicit teaching of SFL metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” enhanced 8-9-year-old children’s deeper understanding and production…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to seek to demonstrate how explicit teaching of SFL metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” enhanced 8-9-year-old children’s deeper understanding and production of multimodal texts through critique of the construction of mini-documentaries about animals: the information, language of narration, composition of scenes and resources to engage the viewer. It also seeks to demonstrate how a knowledge of metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” contributes to students achieving both content knowledge and understanding of the resources of semiotic modes.

Design/methodology/approach

A design-based approach was used with the teacher and author working closely together to implement a unit of work on mini-documentaries, including explicit teaching of the metalanguage of information reports, mini-documentary narration (aka script) and multimodal resources deployed to scaffold students’ creating their own mini-documentaries.

Findings

The students’ mini-documentaries demonstrate how knowledge of SFL written and multimodal SFL-informed “grammars” assisted students to learn how meaning was created through selection of resources from the written, visual, sound and gestural modes and apply this knowledge to creating multimodal texts demonstrating their understandings of the topic and how to make meaning in a multimodal mini-documentary.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to the outcomes from one group of students in one class. Generalisation to other contexts is not possible. Further studies are required to support the results from this research.

Practical implications

The linguistic and multimodal SFL-informed grammars can be applied by educators to critique multimodal texts in a range of mediums and scaffold students’ production of multimodal texts. They can also inform assessment criteria and expand students’ conception of what is literate practice.

Originality/value

Knowledge of a linguistic and multimodal metalanguage can provide students with the tools to enhance their critical language awareness and critical multimodal awareness.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 1 November 2012

Laura A. Wankel and Patrick Blessinger

This book centers on several key areas of social engagement and social learning in higher education today, including social networking platforms and e-portfolios. In addition to…

Abstract

This book centers on several key areas of social engagement and social learning in higher education today, including social networking platforms and e-portfolios. In addition to these Web 2.0 technologies, rapid improvements in related communication technologies (e.g., broadband services, wireless, mobile phones, and tablets) have also provided the necessary infrastructure components by which educators implement innovative teaching and learning practices on a larger scale, in a more reliable manner, and in a more targeted fashion. These technologies are also transforming our views of what it means to learn in an increasingly globalized, interconnected, and pluralistic world. The authors have presented several perspectives on how to use social networking tools to better engage learners in more meaningful and authentic learning activities. Social networking sites like Facebook are not a panacea for effective learning, but they do provide instructors and students with a convenient platform for enhancing the teaching and learning process. Instructors also play an important part in modeling proper online behavior through their presence on the platform and their interaction with their students. However, these tools are only one piece of the learning puzzle. The ultimate goal is to enable students to become lifelong learners and to instill in them a high value for learning that matures over their lifetime. As such, these tools can be used to better engage students more deeply in authentic and personally meaningful learning experiences.

Contextualizing grammar in second language (L2) classrooms implies making grammar constructs relevant to the learners’ world; affording learners the opportunities to better comprehend and apply these concepts in their own milieus. This instructional design (ID) has been devised to contextualize grammar and to explore learner engagement of pre-service English teachers through Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) and Task-based Learning (TBL) in a technology-driven learning environment. CAL encompasses technology-aided discussions, multi-media presentations, online tests and exercises, and social media deployment. TBL, on the other hand, contextualizes grammar using technology and social network in planning, executing, and presenting four assigned tasks: picture essay, brochure design, dialogue composition, and comic strips illustration. Facebook is the e-portfolio of the class, archiving all group and individual output. The CAL-TBL tandem is propelled by group initiatives and class collaboration evident in group discussions and planning, microteaching, task presentations, peer reviews, and self-evaluations. These initiatives engage learners; empowering students to collaboratively take active part and responsibility for their own learning. The three-hour-class meets every week in a computer laboratory. The post-semester feedback and online poll course design review as well as the University Course Evaluation comments have shown that the ID, from the learners’ perspective, is effective in contextualizing grammar and in engaging learners.

Article
Publication date: 15 December 2020

Reyes Rios-Cabrera, Ismael Lopez-Juarez, Alejandro Maldonado-Ramirez, Arturo Alvarez-Hernandez and Alan de Jesus Maldonado-Ramirez

This paper aims to present an object detection methodology to categorize 3D object models in an efficient manner. The authors propose a dynamically generated hierarchical…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present an object detection methodology to categorize 3D object models in an efficient manner. The authors propose a dynamically generated hierarchical architecture to compute very fast objects’ 3D pose for mobile service robots to grasp them.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in this study is based on a dynamic pyramid search and fast template representation, metadata and context-free grammars. In the experiments, the authors use an omnidirectional KUKA mobile manipulator equipped with an RGBD camera, to localize objects requested by humans. The proposed architecture is based on efficient object detection and visual servoing. In the experiments, the robot successfully finds 3D poses. The present proposal is not restricted to specific robots or objects and can grow as much as needed.

Findings

The authors present the dynamic categorization using context-free grammars and 3D object detection, and through several experiments, the authors perform a proof of concept. The authors obtained promising results, showing that their methods can scale to more complex scenes and they can be used in future applications in real-world scenarios where mobile robot are needed in areas such as service robots or industry in general.

Research limitations/implications

The experiments were carried out using a mobile KUKA youBot. Scalability and more robust algorithms will improve the present proposal. In the first stage, the authors carried out an experimental validation.

Practical implications

The current proposal describes a scalable architecture, where more agents can be added or reprogrammed to handle more complicated tasks.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this study resides in the dynamic categorization scheme for fast detection of 3D objects, and the issues and experiments carried out to test the viability of the methods. Usually, state-of-the-art treats categories as rigid and make static queries to datasets. In the present approach, there are no fixed categories and they are created and combined on the fly to speed up detection.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 48 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 September 2018

Carl A. Young, Nicolette Filson and Rachael Debnam-O’Dea

Purpose – To examine the potential social media has for increasing pre-service English language arts (ELA) teachers’ language interest, awareness, and content knowledge by…

Abstract

Structured Abstract

Purpose – To examine the potential social media has for increasing pre-service English language arts (ELA) teachers’ language interest, awareness, and content knowledge by engaging them in an ongoing collaborative effort to seek out, make observation about, and highlight contemporary examples of language, literacy, and culture in action in global media using Twitter as a platform.

Design – The research design was qualitative and included a thematic analysis of Twitter posts from the pre-service teacher participants during the semester, informal feedback about the experience during the semester, and written reflections at the end of the semester. Students worked independently on the assignment throughout the semester, outside of a few brief, and informal check-ins during class by the instructor. At the end of the semester, students completed an open-ended survey to reflect on their experiences with and takeaways from participating in this Twitter-based language exploration activity. The theoretical frameworks that were foundational to the study included the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2008) and Andrews’ (2006) criteria for language exploration and awareness.

Findings – The findings of this qualitative study indicate that engaging pre-service teachers in an ongoing collaborative effort to promote language, literacy, and culture via social media has great potential in terms of students increasing not only their knowledge of language and language awareness, but also their TPACK overall. Specific examples of how participants responded to the experience are provided.

Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature on the potential impact of social media on content area learning and teacher preparation by providing concrete, research-based suggestions for how both English teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers can engage in collaborative efforts to learn more about, expand definitions of, and promote aspects related to ELA content, like language awareness, variety, and dialect. It includes recommendations for both teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers to expand their notions for defining and teaching aspects of language that go beyond a narrow focus on grammar and to consider ways that social media and digital literacies can enhance these efforts.

Details

Best Practices in Teaching Digital Literacies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-434-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 November 2016

Ewa McGrail, J. Patrick McGrail and Alicja Rieger

To explore the potential of conversations with an authentic audience through blogging for enriching in young writers the understanding of the communicative function of writing…

Abstract

Purpose

To explore the potential of conversations with an authentic audience through blogging for enriching in young writers the understanding of the communicative function of writing, specifically language and vocabulary use.

Design/methodology/approach

We situate our work in the language acquisition model of language learning, in which learners develop linguistic competence in the process of speaking and using language (Krashen, 1988; Tomasello, 2005). We also believe that language learning benefits from formal instruction (Krashen, 1988). As such, in our work, we likened engaging in blogging to learning a language (here, more broadly conceived as learning to write) through both natural communication (acquisition) and prescription (instruction), and we looked at these forms of learning in our study.

We were interested in the communicative function of language learning (Halliday, 1973; 1975; Penrod, 2005) among young blog writers, because we see language learning as socially constructed through interaction with other speakers of a language (Tomasello, 2005; Vygotsky, 1978).

Findings

The readers and commenters in this study supported young writers in their language study by modeling good writing and effective language use in their communication with these writers. Young writers also benefited from direct instruction through interactions with adults beyond classroom teachers, in our case some of the readers and commenters.

Practical implications

Blogging can extend conversations to audiences far beyond the classroom and make writing a more authentic endeavor for young writers. Teachers should take advantage of such a powerful tool in their writing classrooms to support their students’ language study and vocabulary development.

Details

Writing Instruction to Support Literacy Success
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-525-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1977

Collin Randlesome

The increasingly international character of modern business, together with the entry of the UK into the European Economic Community, have made it virtually imperative for senior…

Abstract

The increasingly international character of modern business, together with the entry of the UK into the European Economic Community, have made it virtually imperative for senior managers to command at least one language other than their own. This is true not only for companies “going into Europe” but also for firms in the UK in which European capital has been invested.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 1 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0590

Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2018

Patience A. Sowa

This chapter examines how the author, a teacher educator, uses self-study to reframe and reconceptualize her teaching of Emirati preservice teachers. The author describes how…

Abstract

This chapter examines how the author, a teacher educator, uses self-study to reframe and reconceptualize her teaching of Emirati preservice teachers. The author describes how conducting self-study helped her shift from using monolingual approaches to teaching Emirati preservice teachers and a focus on improving their English language proficiency, to affirming their bilingual identities, and becoming more culturally responsive. Initially, the researcher posed the question, “how do I frame and reframe my teaching to support the English language learning of my Emirati preservice teachers?” then progressed to asking and answering the question “how can I affirm the bilingual identities of my Emirati preservice teachers and support their English language proficiency?”

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Gavin D’Northwood

The purpose of this paper is to examine the statements by the chairman and CEO in BP plc’s Annual Report 2010 for linguistic evidence of reader positioning. This is based on the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the statements by the chairman and CEO in BP plc’s Annual Report 2010 for linguistic evidence of reader positioning. This is based on the premise that reputational fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill would have heightened the need for such positioning to repair the company’s legitimacy.

Design/methodology/approach

Applying Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework, a comparative register analysis was undertaken of the respective statements of the chairman and CEO of BP plc. This was informed by corpus analysis of these statements, of comparative statements from industry competitors and of two larger-scale corpora constructed from the chairman and CEO statements extracted from the annual reports of 25 FTSE100 companies.

Findings

The findings suggest that readers’ perceptions are likely to be shaped by the statements of the chairman and CEO of BP plc in the company’s 2010 annual report, but similarities and differences are apparent in the way this positioning is engineered. Broader corpus analysis hints that these similarities and differences are not localised to BP plc.

Research limitations/implications

The analysis relies on the assumptions that the chairman and CEO are the writers of each piece. As with prior research, questions of intent on the part of the corporate authors and impact upon target readers remain unanswered.

Practical implications

This paper demonstrates and highlights the issue of reader positioning through lexico-grammatical choices in corporate disclosures.

Originality/value

This paper makes a contribution to the literature by demonstrating how reader positioning may be engineered through lexico-grammatical choices in corporate disclosures. This paper further responds to a call from Sydserff and Weetman (1999, 2002) for interdisciplinary approaches to investigating corporate narrative reports involving linguistics, through foregrounding Halliday’s SFL framework as an analytical tool.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 4000