This study was an attempt to assess how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) improved their speaking fluency in a task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach used with ninth-grade learners at PUNIV-Cazenga, a high school in Luanda. In a case study design that used picture-description tasks, learners' speeches were audio recorded before and after the teaching, in which recasts and prompts were utilized as feedback tools for 8 weeks. The findings indicated that learners improved in terms of their speaking fluency by maximizing their speed of speech production, increasing grammatical accuracy, elaborating on their utterances, and developing interactional language. Furthermore, learners' opinions on being taught with the TBLT approach were sought, and the findings indicated that the learners felt encouraged to speak, believed in their potentials to use the target language, expanded their vocabulary, and recognized the relevance of the TBLT approach. The implications of the findings are discussed for teaching practice and future research.
In all organizations, employees need to demonstrate competencies to succeed in their job. The knowledge that employees gain from schools, universities, or training centers usually focuses on disciplinary expertise (Jackson & Chapman, 2012), and it is expected to help in performing actions that contribute to the achievement of an organization's business objectives. In other words, employees are expected to demonstrate technical competencies (Leme, 2007(Leme, , 2012Walsh & Linton, 2002). Individual engagements such as creativity, collaboration, and complexity are also deemed necessary for employees to succeed in their job. These individual commitments are known as nontechnical competencies (Jackson & Chapman, 2012), henceforth referred to as behavioral competencies. Technical and behavioral competencies are expected to make individuals successful in organizations, be they schools, universities
The present study investigates how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) improve the readability of their texts in an explicit genre-based approach that is utilized in an oil and gas exploration workplace in Angola. By drawing on the English for Specific Purposes and Systemic Functional Linguistics genre traditions, the study engages 18 intermediate learners (14 males and 4 females) in an explicit instruction of an email making a request and assesses how learners’ written products improve in terms of genre and linguistics choices. The study also explores how learners notice the features that render their texts readable. The results shed light on the features that should require attention in helping learners with readability, and inform on the way an explicit genre-based approach should be utilized to maximize learners’ ability to notice readability features.
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