Many studies have described the use of mobile assisted language learning in language teaching and learning; yet, the number of studies in listening skill remains unsatisfactory, at least in Iraqi Kurdistan context. Few researchers appear to have considered how to use mobile learning devices to support pedagogical approach to develop academic listening skills. Several studies in the past, required learners to read from mobile phones rather than listening to audios. There were attempts to use computer technology integration into instruction; however, few were in mobile technology. The interest in research related to the impact of mobile assisted language learning on developing students’ listening skills remains relatively low and consequently listening has been neglected. Thus, the current paper aims at exploring the effectiveness of mobile assisted language learning devices both as instructional tools and learning resources within and beyond classroom learning environments to develop language skills in particular listening sub-skills. The experimental design is pretest-experiment-post-test. To conduct the study two groups of experimental (n=31) and control (n=26) out of 57 second year students at koya university/ faculty of education/ school of education English department were made. Both groups were taught the same material, but using different methods. The results of the post-test indicated that the use of mobile assisted language learning devices had impacts on developing experimental group’s listening skills and outperformed the control group.
Peer assessment (PA) is a kind of evaluation which allows the learners to assess their peers’ work with the instructions of the teachers and agreed upon criteria. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) has worked on reforming the higher education system since 2008. It tries to apply the student-centered approach of learning and prepare graduates to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers. One of the alternative methods of assessment in the Student-centered approach is PA. This paper aims to investigate the use of peer assessment in EFL classes at university level. Further, it tries to find out whether peer-assessment is used correctly! Finally, it discovers the challenges encountered by EFL students while implementing PA in the Essay Writing classes. In this study both qualitative and quantitative method are used. The study has conducted in the colleges of Education, Basic Education, and Languages at SUE with the third stage students. The study concludes that peer assessment is used in EFL classes, but it is not used as correct as it should be. The instructors who used it have to illustrate its procedures in the class before using it.
The study is based on the assumption that the current curricula in the Iraqi Kurdistan Universities (henceforth IKU) were not satisfactorily compatible with the scientific, technological and industrial needs of the Region’s markets. These curricula neither help students to develop their skills nor assist them in thinking creatively. Therefore, the new curricula are supposed to educate undergraduates to increase their capabilities in research, information dissemination and learning a second/foreign language. The Academic Debate and Critical Thinking (ADCT) course was added to all freshmen programs in order to prepare them for university life and make them proficient cadre for their future occupation. This course helps students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators. Since the new version of this course has been implemented for four years, this study attempts to evaluate the course and find out how it is taught, how effective it is, what topics are studied, what activities are used, what types of assessment are employed and what are the main challenges that teachers and students face in dealing with this course. The sample of the study are the teachers of ADCT and the first year students in the English departments in both Colleges of Basic Education at Salahaddin University-Erbil and the University of Sulaimani in the academic year 2017-2018. Two questionnaires were prepared using Google Form. The students’ responses revealed that debating is focused on, general social problems are debated, academic posters are used more, and group work is dominating class activities. As for teachers’ responses, they think that the objectives of the course are clear and achievable, discussion and debating are mostly used, and the assessment system suggested by the textbook is used accurately except for poster design which some teachers do not teach.
The aim of this study is to elicit Kurdish EFL teachers’ perspectives on constructivism and its implementation at university level. To obtain the needed data, a questionnaire is administered to 49 EFL teachers at Salahaddin University. According to the most significant results of the research, the Kurdish EFL teachers in general have positive perspectives toward constructivism as a teaching and learning approach. However, their agreement with the implementation of the different principles of constructivism varied and the agreement percentage for the items ranged from 89.39% to 73.47%. It is worth mentioning that the current study is an extract from a PhD dissertation that investigates the effectiveness of implementing the principles of constructivism in the Kurdish context.
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