No abstract

No abstract

Despite the emphasis on effective supervisory feedback formulation on postgraduates’ academic writing, our understanding of effective feedback forms may not be comprehensive without mentoring students’ responses to feedback. Therefore, the current case study explores feedback formulation on research proposal writing and two postgraduates’ responses to feedback in a Malaysian university. Data were collected from written feedback, students’ commenting responses to feedback, their text revisions, and follow-up interviews. The feedback is formulated as directive, referential, and expressive, and it addresses issues related to content, organization, linguistic accuracy, and appropriateness in research proposal writing. The two postgraduates engaged in cognitive (e.g., confusion), metacognitive (e.g., reading feedback), and affective (e.g., appreciating feedback) responses to feedback. They integrated most of the feedback in revising their writing and made additional text revisions. Although this study is primarily qualitative in nature, simple descriptive quantitative measures were applied to the data to determine the prevalence of feedback forms, responding and revision patterns. The study provides useful suggestions for supervisory feedback practices.

No abstract

No abstract

Aim/Purpose: The aim of the present study is to explore the online participation of nine English as foreign language (EFL) Arab learners in group writing discussions through a Facebook group over the study period of three months and how the EFL learners view the role of the Facebook-facilitated peer review activities in promoting their online participation. Background: Research has addressed the issue of isolation among distance learning students by integrating various technological tools into online courses. Yet, little is known about the role of Facebook groups in addressing this issue among distance learning learners from the sociocultural theories, and how online participation supports learners’ nurturing of social relations still needs to be answered through an empirical analysis of their interactions and reflections on their online learning experience. Methodology: Being situated in a Facebook group mentored by two instructors, the study was conducted over three months using a case study approach. The data was collected from two sources: (1) learners’ comments/interactions on their peer review posts, and (2) their reflections on their experience through online call interviews. The study used a content analysis of learners’ interactions and a thematic analysis of the reflections. Moreover, simple descriptive statistics, including the number and percentage of learners’ patterns of interactions: on-task, around-task, and off-task were used to determine the intensity of learners’ online participation over the study period. Contribution: The findings contribute to the research at the international level in several ways. It supports the argument that online participation is not merely taking part in activities, but it also involves social relations among learners. The findings also underlie useful pedagogical and technological implications for EFL teachers and lecturers. Facebook groups can be used as interactive platforms for EFL learners in distance courses. In addition, owing to the students’ increasing access to Facebook groups, instructors can engage learners in useful learning activities that contribute to their language learning, particularly writing. This study raises people’s awareness of the usefulness of Facebook groups as interactive platforms for university students in distance courses. Findings: The findings indicate that the learners engaged in active online participation, which is partly evidenced by their increasing intensity of participation in terms of the on-task, around-task and off-task aspects over the three months. However, learners’ online participation is facilitated by the course instructor as he posted comments that reflect his diverse roles in facilitating the online group discussions. The learners also view the positive role of Facebook-facilitated group discussions on collaborative writing in contributing to their online participation, friendships and sense of community. Recommendations for Practitioners: Since learners’ maintenance of active participation in online discussions is a critical issue reported by many previous studies on online learning at the international level, the present study suggests that instructors should play the role as facilitators and mentors of learners’ online discussions in order to engage learners in active learning and also enable them to pursue their online discussions. Recommendation for Researchers: Based on the findings, researchers should focus on how to promote learners’ sense of community in distance courses in order to enable them to feel attached to one another and overcome the feelings of isolation. Facebook groups can be used for the purpose of language learning, especially at the university context. Impact on Society: The study informs us of how teachers can assign their students to collaborative writing tasks by making a good use of information technologies. Future Research: Based on the findings, researchers should focus on how to promote learners’ sense of community in distance courses in order to enable them to feel attached to one another and overcome the feelings of isolation. Facebook groups can be used for the purpose of language learning, especially at the university context. Future research could maximize the opportunities for online learning using a combination of social networking sites, such as Facebook and other social technological tools in distance courses. Such integration of more than tools will increase learners’ online participation in such courses.

The present study is an attempt to explore the relationship between the breadth (the number of words known) and the depth of vocabulary knowledge (the richness of word knowledge) (the richness of word knowledge), and reading comprehension of EFL learners in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Furthermore, it tries to find the effect of language proficiency level of learners on the breadth and the depth of lexical vocabulary and reading comprehension of Saudi EFL learners. The participants of the study were seventy-five intermediate and advanced level majoring in English Translation at Qassim University in KSA. The level of language proficiency of participants had been checked through an OPT by the department in advance. To collect the relevant data, two tests measuring breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge were administered to all participants. They also received a reading comprehension test in which they were asked to read the passages and answer some multiple-choice questions. The findings obtained from the analysis of the data indicated that there is a significant relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and Saudi advanced/intermediate EFL learner’s reading comprehension performance totally. The results further revealed that both dimensions of vocabulary knowledge are positively correlated, that is, those learners who had large vocabulary size had a deeper knowledge of the words, too. The results further showed that language proficiency level of learners have an effect on Saudi EFL learners’ reading performance and vocabulary knowledge. These results confirm the importance and the value of developing students‟ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in EFL classrooms.

Writing is considered a very important learning tool for all content areas. There is no doubt that writing skill is essential for any kind of learning either at the school or the university level. Therefore, the present study attempted to explore the possibility of improving university students’ one of writing sub-skills, known as coherence through emoji. Coherence in the students’ writing was measured according to the students ability to a) use repetition to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, b)use transitional expressions to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, c) use pronouns to link sentences, d)use synonyms to link ideas and create variety, e) use parallel structures to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs. The sample of this study was randomly selected from the Third Level female students joining the Department of English at one Saudi public university. The selected subjects were assigned randomly into control group and experimental group. After administrating the pretest for the two groups, the experimental group was given a six-week treatment of emoji meant for improving the writing sub-skill, while the control group was taught writing without using emoji. One week after the treatment, a posttest was administered to the two groups. Results revealed significant difference between the students’ scores in writing in favor of using emoji to improve students’ writing skills. Thus, the findings show the effectiveness of using emoji in improving students’ coherence in writing. The results were used to draw some conclusions and to suggest some recommendations for teaching writing using emoji. The results also recommend further researches to be done on using emoji to improve other language skills and sub-skills.