Abstract-Cooperative language learning (CLL) approach was used to encourage second-year university students at the college of languages and translation, at Al-Imam University to learn from their peers so that they could develop their writing skills. Students in CLL-based groups were trained to be more responsible for their learning through developing their personal interaction as well as their linguistic competence in a more relaxed social context. This treatment included sophomore students enrolled in EN 211 course in the second semester of 2013 academic year. Two instruments were used in this study; a pre-post writing test, and an attitude questionnaire. The pre-and post-scores from the test were calculated for descriptive statistics and compared using a Wilcoxon Test. The process of evaluating students' writings focused mainly on analyzing their mistakes with regard to spelling, using of vocabulary, grammar, punctuation as well as coherence. The findings revealed that the students' scores in writing were higher for the post-test than the pre-test at the significance level of .001 after being subject to this kind of treatment. However, it must be stated that the degree of improvement was not extremely high as students still made some mistakes with regard to the previously mentioned points. As for the attitude scale, the results obtained proved that the students developed positive attitudes towards using the cooperative learning approach to develop language skills in general and to develop their writing skills in particular.
This article discusses the relationship between culture and English language teaching (ELT) in the Arab World. A critical question arises in terms of ELT, that is, whether to teach culture along with English. To answer such a bewildering question, this article presents related literature and studies and discusses a theoretical frame based on experts' insights and opinions. The article displays various viewpoints concerning this topic, offers different empirical studies in this field, and reaches some valuable conclusions.
Abstract-This study aimed at helping students to deal systematically and effectively with culture-specific items. This was treated through designing and applying a specific course based on sixteen strategies adopted from what Newmark(1988), Hariyanto (1997), and Harvey (2003) suggested. The course was designed in the light of these strategies. It included different cultural topics with various cultural items in both English and Arabic. The course was applied in seven weeks to a sample of third-year university students at Al-Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, College of Languages and Translation, during the first seven weeks of the second term. Students were asked to answer a pre-test on culture-specific items. The same test was distributed on students after the treatment which was represented in teaching the specific course. A Wilcoxon test was used to compare students' scores in each item and in the test as a whole. The results showed the effectiveness of using the specific course in developing third-year students' skills in translating culture-specific items. However, the change that happened for students was not very high as only one got an excellent degree and just four got a very good degree. The percentage of unsuccessful students reached 25% and the percentage of students with fair degree reached 40%. This reflected the fact that the time was not enough as students needed more practice. In general, strategy teaching is very important but it is not sufficient to create professional or good translators.
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