Motivation is an important factor for success in learning a foreign or second language. Creating such motivation among learners through adopting certain teaching practices is likely to stimulate learners to learn. Previous research has largely investigated motivational teaching practices from teachers’ perspective. However, little research has addressed motivational practices from learners’ perspective. In context such as Yemen, EFL teachers at the tertiary level encounter a challenging task in creating motivational practices for learners whose preferences for teaching practices should be the corner stone in the learning and teaching process. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether the teaching practices adopted by teachers are motivating from learners’ perspective. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was distributed to 137 undergraduate students in level four at the English Department, within two faculties (i.e. Faculty of Education and Faculty of Languages) at Sana'a University. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS. The teaching practices which are likely to be motivating as perceived by learners were computed and compared. The findings revealed that teaching macro-practices vary in the degree of their motivation from most motivating (i.e. familiarize learners with L2 related values) to the least motivating (present tasks properly) as perceived by learners. The study also revealed that some teaching macro-practices appear to be transmitted to the Arab culture based on the learner-center approach.
Reading is an essential language skill for enhancing learners’ performance at various levels of study. However, EFL learners at the tertiary level encounter reading difficulties, particularly in acquiring advanced reading skills, which have affected their reading comprehension and resulted in low academic performance achievement. This is probably attributed to various factors, including learners’ lack of effective reading strategies. A study that exclusively explores reading difficulties encountered by EFL university learners, reasons for the difficulties, and strategies adopted to overcome the difficulties and develop advanced reading skills seem to be scarce in the literature. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to explore the acquisition process of advanced reading skills in EFL tertiary context at a private university in Yemen from learners’ perspective. The study adopted a qualitative approach to gather data from EFL tertiary learners through a focus group discussion. The data were analyzed manually using the indexing approach. Findings revealed that learners face reading difficulties such as inference making, getting the gist of the text, and managing the reading tasks. These difficulties were attributed to linguistic and non-linguistic reasons, and metacognitive, cognitive, and social-affective strategies were used in reading. The study recommends engaging EFL learners in intensive and extensive reading to help them apply the strategies they learn and develop advanced reading skills and better academic performance. Future research studies may focus on strategies for reading fluency.
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