Abstract

Reading bestows enjoyment and enlightenment. It unlocks the unknown. It is a complex cognitive activity that is indispensable for the kind of knowledge society. So the students of today’s world must know how to learn from reading and to enter the present literate society.  One who reads can lead others to light.   People who read can be free because reading banishes ignorance and superstition. Reading has the power to revolutionize everyone’s ways of thinking and living. It makes everyone think critically and creatively.

Teachers must emphasize all kinds of reading, especially critical reading which is not just reading on the lines but it deals with reading between and beyond the lines. A critical reader challenges the author’s assumptions, inferences, and conclusions, and judges the accuracy, reliability, quality and value of what he reads on the basis of sound criteria or standards developed through previous experiences. This kind of reading paves clear path for students to acquire better comprehensive ability through SQ3R techniques, computer multimedia and other activities such as skimming and scanning. Although there are ways and means to acquire reading skill, there are a few factors which affect it severely. Teachers must be careful in avoiding these hindrances and make their wards’ reading easy, effective and successful. Teachers are the prime source for students in cultivating their reading habit. Their advice and encouragement will help the students move a step further in developing their attitude towards reading.

Teachers can teach phonetics to readers of initial stage and help them pronounce the sounds of letters and words properly. They should also emphasize writing task in the primary grade as it is directly associated with reading programme. They can teach them syllabication to recognize new words. Special assistance may be given to students with regard to the selection of materials for reading based on their age, time and capacity and determine their reading levels. They must realize that they have to play major role in encouraging and engaging the students to become voracious readers.

Abstract

This study described the discourse structure and textual metadiscourse in newspaper editorials in the Philippines where English is used as a second language or L2.  Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions: (1) What discourse features characterize the structure of the following parts of Philippine newspaper editorials — orientation block, exposition block, and summation block?; and (2) What textual metadiscourse strategies exist in the newspaper editorials — connectors and code glosses?

Data examined were the 24 newspaper editorials published in 2010 by two leading Philippine broadsheets, namely, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star.  Frequency and percentage counts were utilized in the analysis.

Findings revealed that the discourse structure of Philippine newspaper editorials followed the two-move pattern in the orientation, exposition, and summation blocks.  With regard to the steps used, the orientation block frequently employed the general statement and elaboration steps.  The exposition block, in addition, relied more on the use of specific statements.  The summation block, on the other hand, commonly used the conclusion and evaluation steps.  Regarding the use of connectors, Philippine newspaper editorials were built more on the additive relation, using a progressive or accumulative strategy.  In addition, the genre examined used more simple connectors, such as the additive and, or, and also, adversative but and yet, and causal because and so.  In terms of code glosses, editorialists seemed to use more parenthetical definitions to provide adequate clarifications and exemplifications in the proposition or content.

Abstract

This study was initiated to explore how pre-university students who enrolled in the Malaysian Higher School Certificate program perceived their experiences in learning ESL through Problem-Based Learning (PBL). This small scale study involved 35 pre-university students in an upper sixth form in a secondary school in Kelantan, Malaysia. Participants were given three sets of self-administered questionnaire with a 5 point Likert scale adapted from Fauziah et al. (2004). The questionnaires were aimed to explore the students’ perspectives regarding the use of PBL in ESL, student-peer collaboration and student-facilitator collaboration involved in the learning process after they have gone through two PBL learning sessions. Descriptive statistic which involved frequency counts was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that majority of the students had positive views regarding the use of PBL, student-peer collaboration and student-facilitator collaboration in promoting language learning and enhancing their thinking skills. However, in comparison, student-peer collaboration is perceived as less positive than student-facilitator collaboration. This implies that problem-based learning, if carefully guided by the facilitator, could be an effective approach in developing critical thinking skills and fostering language learning among pre-university students.

Abstract

By adopting corpus-based approach in this research study, we examined the various aspects of the copular verbs used by Chinese school children learning English. This study revealed that Chinese school children use copular verbs less frequently than native English speakers; they select a limited variety of copular verbs and less often use complements after most of those copular verbs which most often lack variety as well. We also made an attempt to explore relevant factors causing such differences among English learners in China and studied the related implications and limitations to these effects.

Abstract

Language is a very important means of communication. It is very difficult to think of a society without language. It sharpens people’s thoughts and guides and controls their entire activity. It is a carrier of civilization and culture (Bolinger, 1968). In the case of the mother tongue, the child learns it easily, due to the favourable environment and by the great amount of exposure to the language. But, learning a second language requires conscious efforts to learn it and the exposure to the second language in most cases is limited (Bose, 2007). Majority of the students have favoured classroom instruction for the second language acquisition (James, 1996). There are so many factors affect the process of learning a second language, including attitude, self-confidence, motivation, duration of exposure to the language, classroom conditions, environment, family background, and availability of competent teachers (Verghese, 2009). Here the authors took up a study on analysing the various reasons for the problems faced by the second language learner. The reasons identified were: environment, attitude and teacher’s competence. Environment and family background play vital role in success of learning process. For example, countries like India, where majority of the people are farmers, have the poor background in education. Moreover, the income of majority of the families is not adequate. Hence, the parents are not interested in giving good education background to their children. In contrast, they are willing to engage the children in some jobs in order to earn money. This is the very basic reason and the affecting factor in teaching. Attitude is yet another affective factor in learning a second language. Attitude is the way that you think and feel about something. The successful acquisition of a second language seems to some extent, contingent upon learners’ views of the language learning environment, the learning situation, and how they view the target language and its speakers (Narayanan et al., 2008). Like the environment and attitude, teacher’s competence is also a variable factor that affects the second language learning. He should be proficient in the language; his knowledge of and expertise in methods and techniques of language teaching should be of a reasonably high standard (Verghese, 2009).

Abstract

Vocabulary is predominant in improving one’s communicative skill.  Language is more powerful when it is being used perfectly. Teachers should consider the background of learners and aid them to learn and develop their vocabulary in many interesting ways especially through games. This paper deals with a productive and a logical study, done on a set of college students to improve the vocabulary of first generation learners at college level through games. Learners should be exposed to develop basic skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Print and visual media help learners to acquire more words interestingly.

Abstract

The study enlightens the effectiveness of Interactive-Multimedia Package in developing communicative skill in English at standard VI. Present methods of developing communicative skill are ineffective to the students in improving their communicative competencies in English. Challenging interactive Multimedia Package can be helped to enhance the communicative competency for the suitable communicative transactions of oral as well as written in English. The researcher endeavoured to prepare a Multimedia Package for enriching application oriented and life-long utilisation in English for the students of standard VI. Objectives of the study: 1.To prepare a Multimedia Package for developing the communicative skill in English.2.To find out the significant difference in achievement mean score between the pre test of control group and the post test of control group.3.To find out the significant difference in achievement mean score between the pre test of Experimental group and the post test of Experimental group.4.To find out the impact of Multimedia Package in improving communicative skill in English. Methodology: Quasi   Experimental method was adopted in the study. Sample: Eighty Students of standard VI from Govt Higher Secondary school, Kalveeranpalayam were  selected as sample for the study. Forty twostudents  were considered as Controlled group and thirty eight students were considered as Experimental group. Tool: Researcher’s self-made achievement test was used as a tool for the study. Validity of the tool was established by the opinion of the juries.      Reliability of the tool was established by the split-half method. Statistical technique:’t’ test was used to analyse the study.  Findings: Multimedia Package is more effective than traditional methods in developing communicative skill in English at standard VI. Educational implications: It can be implemented for improving communicative skill for other standards also.