A high percentage of bachelor test-takers who failed the unified entrance examination test in 2021 demonstrated the lack of adequate reading strategies such as contextual guessing for improving exam performance. The study aims at evaluating the use of contextual guessing strategy during extra-curriculum EFL classes as a way to improve students’ unified entrance examination performance. The present study also examines the impact of word formation as a component of contextual guessing strategy and the effectiveness of contextual guessing with online vocabulary application in exam preparation. A quasi-experimental design was employed which involved 24 third-year students from different departments of Higher Educational Institution "Podillia State University" in 2020-2021. The quantitative research method was employed to assess the effectiveness of using contextual guessing to improve students’ test performance using the mean score formula. Additionally, we produced a test statistic based on the ranks (Mann–Whitney U-criterion). The results showed that the experimental group that was taught the strategy of guessing unknown words with the help of word-formation processes, and contextual clues, in particular, and applied the vocabulary platform for fixing and retaining guessed words had higher results than those who were taught unified entrance examination tests with the help of the grammar-translation method. Based on Mann–Whitney U-criterion we have statistically significant evidence to conclude that contextual guessing significantly affects EFL learners’ test performance in experimental and control groups. The guide on word formation was designed during the experiment.
Today, a majority of agricultural farms are equipped with a new type of farm machinery, tractors, which require high-quality knowledge, skills and abilities from engineers. Therefore, the ability to describe the objects, mechanisms and working schemes is a priority for future agricultural engineers. Before COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, most ESP classes were held in specially equipped laboratories, where students could study agricultural machinery and equipment on layouts. Ukrainian educators search for alternative teaching tools to enable effective distance learning of future agricultural engineers. Three-dimensional environments can be very useful to examine agricultural machinery parts. The purpose of this experiment was to test the effectiveness of 3-D engineering animation in improving profession-based vocabulary acquisition. A two-group post-test comparative pedagogical experiment was conducted with the second-year agricultural engineering students (n = 30) during the spring semester of the academic year 2022. A series of online 3-D engineering animations was adapted with the students of the experimental group to reinforce the course content and develop vocabulary skills in participants. The achievement profession-based vocabulary test with experimental and control groups was carried out. The number of participants in each group is equal (n1 = 15, n2 = 15), so the boundary value of Хb at a 5%- level of significance for N = 30 is 4.88. The statistical interpretation of the test results based on the Van der Waerden criterion shows that Xf > Hb, respectively, 8.85 > 4.88. The differences in the results obtained are statistically significant (X = 8.85 at P < 0.05), which allows us to assert the effectiveness of training engaged in the experimental group.
Agriculture is almost the only industry in Ukraine that shows its stable growth despite the complicated social and economic conditions. It provides plenty of job positions that require a good command of English. The results of EfU baseline study in Ukrainian universities showed that ESP courses do not prepare the students to communicate at the workplace and do not provide mastering specific vocabulary related to their future job. The research deals with teaching profession-based topics from the "Agricultural machinery" course in a foreign language in line with engineering students' notion about the necessity of English discipline-specific knowledge.The article informs about the results of the students' presentations at the conference as progress in their professional knowledge, based on the integrated curriculum. Several studies have reported on ESP teaching with the technical university students according to CLIL and EMI methodology, however, an integrated approach to ESP teaching remains to be accomplished. The paper aims to examine the integrated approach at the content level through the integration of the discipline "Agricultural machines" into ESP course and at the methodological level through well-built and effective profession-based learning strategies. The study used pre-and post-questionnaire design that resulted in students' engineering conference presentations. The recommendations on discipline-specific content and activities in the integrated ESP course are given. The study reveals the benefits of using engineering profession-based tasks for successful student performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.