Browsing by Subject "English as a Foreign Language"

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Open Access
Digitalized learning activities to promote speaking skills
(2015) Alpaslan, Rosie Stott
More importance is being given to developing English speaking skills as technological developments are making the world a smaller place. English has been defined as a global language and it is inevitable that English has become the second language that is predominantly studied in Turkey. However, the unwillingness of students to communicate in English presents many challenges to educators. Thus, the use of technology to facilitate out of class speaking opportunities could provide support in this area. This is a quasi-experimental research study conducted over a period of four months, focusing on the development of young learners‟ willingness to communicate in English as a Foreign Language using digitalised learning activities created using PowerPoint. In addition, the use of digitalised learning activities completed at home hoped to improve inclass oral assessment scores with regards to grammatical structures. The study consisted of an experimental group of 19 third grade students and a control group of 21 third grade students studying at a private primary school in Ankara, Turkey. Specifically this project has three research questions; How does the use of digitalized learning activities impact the students‟ use of target structures in their speaking assessments? Does children‟s willingness to communicate appear to change over the duration of the intervention? What was the parental feedback about the digitalized learning activities? The results showed that the use of the digitalized learning activities were beneficial to the experimental group‟s oral assessment grades with regards to target grammatical structures. In addition the experimental groups‟ willingness to communicate improved by the end of the study.
Open Access
Instructors' attitudes towards assessing speaking holistically and analytically
(2015) Önem, Engin Evrim
The primary aim of this study is to find out language instructors’ attitudes towards holistic and analytic assessment of speaking. The secondary aim is to investigate whether the scores assigned by using holistic and analytic assessment tools differed or not. Finally, this study sets out to reveal whether the scores assigned by using holistic and analytic assessment tools differed or not according to instructors’ background. The research was conducted at the School of Foreign Languages, Erciyes University with twenty four language instructors between December 2014 and April 2015. An attitude questionnaire and holistic and analytic assessment tools were used to collect data. The findings showed that the instructors in this study had different attitudes towards holistic and analytic assessment of speaking, and their advantages and disadvantages for assessment. While instructors did not have a negative attitude towards analytic assessment of speaking, they displayed a more positive attitude towards holistic assessment. Also, as a whole, the speaking exam scores assigned by holistic and analytic assessment tools did not differ. Scores were found to differ only when instructors’ years of experience was considered for scores obtained by holistic assessment. For other variables examined, there scores did not statistically differ according to the background of the instructors. In the light of this study’s findings, it can be suggested that allowing instructors to choose between holistic and analytic assessment tools of their own preference may be considered for further educational purposes.