This study was aimed to investigate the effects of mastery learning instruction on engineering students’ academic writing skills and motivation in an EFL context. The participants were software engineering and computer science first-year students, and they were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Observation, a questionnaire, and pre- and post-tests were employed as data gathering instruments. The research was designed through a time series quasi-experimental research design. The data were analysed through repeated measure ANOVA, independent t-tests, as well as descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that there was a statistical difference between the experimental and the control groups. Hence, students who participated in mastery learning instruction improved their writing skills and achieved better scores in writing skills assessment. Particularly, learners who learned through mastery learning instruction were able to develop paragraphs and essays with clear topic sentences and thesis statements. They also developed paragraphs with proper punctuation and minimized various mechanical errors that were observed during the pre-test. Furthermore, the students who engaged in mastery learning instruction had better levels of motivation. Thus, individualized instruction and continuous feedback helped them improve their engagement in writing activities. Hence, this study calls for more attention to self-paced instruction, regular feedback, assessment, and continuous support in writing classrooms.

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Lexical bundles are two or more string of words that co-occur frequently in a corpus. Hence, this corpus-based research design study examines the effects of lexical bundles on English as a foreign language learner’s abstract genre academic writing skills, and it also investigates students’ perception towards lexical bundles instruction to enhance their academic writing skills. Hence, frequent lexical bundles were selected from 70 computer science articles. These articles were selected from 7 journals that were published in reputable, indexed, and through representative criteria. Accordingly, sixteen frequent lexical bundles were selected through corpus analysis software (Laurence Anthony’s Antconc software) for the purpose of classroom instruction. The bundles are intended to help computer science students to develop their abstract genre academic writing skills. Students have instructed their academic writing through corpus informed instruction for two months, and the data were gathered through pre and post-tests and questionnaire. The findings indicated that lexical bundles have a positive effect on students’ academic writing skills, particularly abstract genre writing. Besides, the students have a positive perception of the lexical bundle and the instruction to enhance their academic writing skills. Finally, this research calls attention to discipline-oriented lexical bundles since they are crucial for academic writing.

University-industry linkage is considered as a strategy to equip university students, with theoretical and practical knowledge. The purpose of this research was to investigate the approaches, perceptions, and challenges of internship mentoring in Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University. The participants were mentors, students, and a director. Thus, 60 mentors, 80 students, and one academic program director were selected through availability and purposive sampling techniques. The research was designed through a case study, embedded mixed research design approach. The data were collected through questionnaire and interview and analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean), the Kruskal-Wallis H test, and thematic analysis. The data revealed that both mentors and students perceived internship mentoring helped to improve engineering students’ academic achievements and their psychology. However, different responses were observed between mentors and students. Most students did not perceive the internship mentoring program helped them improve their communication skills and their future careers. The data also proved that majority of mentors used a cloning model than the nurturing and friendship models. Finally, the data indicated that lack of company supervisor’s interest to involve students in the actual work, inadequate support from administrators, and inadequate guidance for mentoring are the major challenges that affect the implementation of internship mentoring in Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University.

This study aimed at examining the effects of corpus-based instructional mediation on EFL learners’ academic writing skills improvement. To conduct the research, a quasi-experimental research design was employed. A total of 72 EFL mechanical engineering students participated in the study, and they were selected through a simple random sampling technique.  Among them, 25 students were assigned to the experimental group and 47 students to the control group. The data were gathered by means of pre- and post-tests. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to observe the statistical differences between the control and the experimental groups in their academic writing skills. The results showed that the students who were instructed through corpus-based instructional mediation outperformed than the students who were instructed in the conventional instructional approach. Particularly, the students who participated in the experimental group improved their content, communicative achievement, organization, grammar, and vocabulary usage than the students who participated in the control group. Therefore, this research calls for inclusion of corpus-based authentic linguistic elements in their teaching material when teaching academic writing courses in the EFL context.

AbstrakKajian ini bertujuan untuk menelisik persepsi siswa, tutor sebaya dan pimpinan lembaga mengenai implementasi tutor sebaya dalam pembelajaran. Selain itu juga bertujuan untuk mengetahui implementasi dan tantangannya dalam bidang ilmu olah raga. Subjek penelitian ini meliputi para tutor sebaya, peserta program tutorial (tutee), dan kepala lembaga. Semua subjek diseleksi menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Kuesioner, wawancara, dan diskusi terfokus juga dilakukan untuk mengumpulkan data. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa tutee, tutor sebaya, dan kepala lembaga memiliki persepsi positif terhadap pembelajaran tutor sebaya. Mereka menyatakan bahwa pembelajaran tutor sebaya dapat meningkatkan kemampuan akademik, kecakapan sosial, dan dapat juga mengatasi hambatan psikologis siswa. Bagaimanapun juga, praktik pembelajaran ini masih sebatas pada aktivitas mengerjakan tugas dan pembelajaran berbasis proyek, termasuk juga berbagi pengalaman belajar mereka. Penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa beberapa factor seperti motivasi tutee, ketiadaan fasilitas, kurangnya dukungan dari lembaga, dan kurangnya pengalaman tutor teman sebaya turut memengaruhi keterlibatan siswa dalam pembelajaran. AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine the perception of students, peer assisters and the department head towards peer assisted instruction. It also aimed to investigate the extent of its implementation in sport sciences department and challenges which hamper its effectiveness. The subjects were peer assisters, tutees and the department head. They were selected through purposive sampling technique. Questionnaire, interview and focus group discussions were employed as data gathering instruments. The findings indicated that tutees, peer assisters and the department head have positive perceptions toward peer assisted learning instruction. They perceived that peer assisted instructional approach helps learners to develop their academic achievement, to enhance their social interaction skills and to manage their psychological difficulties. However, the practices were limited to activities such as doing assignments and project works, sharing their learning and studying experience. The data also revealed that factors such as lack of tutees motivation, lack of facilities, lack of support from the department, lack of peer assister tutoring experience were the observed challenges which affect students' engagement in peer assisted instructional model.

Learner center assessment procedure and application is very crucial for students writing skills improvement. Hence, this study aimed to explore the effects of dynamic criteria mapping assessment on students' conceptions and writing skills development with reference to Vygotsky, zone of proximity development. To examine the issues, time series, quasi experimental research design was employed. The major data gathering tools were pre and post-tests, questionnaire and focus group discussion. Multistage sampling technique was employed to choose the sample of the study, and 63 first year software engineering students were the subjects of the study. Among these participants, 32 students were assigned to experimental group and the other 31 students' were assigned to control group. The findings indicated that dynamic criteria mapping assessment was effective in improving students writing skills development; students were able to construct sentence with better text structure and arguments. Furthermore, they used various cohesive devices, appropriate punctuation marks and dictions in their writing. Moreover, the assessment techniques had changed their conceptions on learning writing skills and engagment in writing assessment. Generally, the researcher learned that dynamic criteria mapping assessment strategy was vital to enhance students writing skills and conceptions on learning writing skills. Lastly, it is recommended that teachers should prepare various and dynamic criteria with their respective students while they assess their students writing skills, and teachers should not use judgmental assessment techniques.

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