Language and Testing

The article focuses on the problem of training future IT-specialists in Ukraine, particularly, the English language training of Master students and the role of English for the future career of IT-specialists. The goal of the research is to determine the role of the English language competence for the specialists of IT-field and to find out the attitude of Master students to teaching English: relevance of including the discipline “Fundamentals of Scientific Communication in Foreign Language” in the curriculum of Master Course; the ratio of classroom activity to independent work; necessary focus of foreign language and the types of speech activity; relevance of attention to the grammar structure of the language; the preferred teaching methods; the frequency of using periodicals at the classes; the appropriate source of professionally oriented texts; the desired type of control.

In most of the developing countries including Pakistan and Indonesia, English is used as a foreign language. It continues to be one of the teaching subjects at school level, and the teaching of this language has a dominating influence over the whole structure of the educational system. There is a need to strengthen the background of students at basic Elementary as well Secondary level regarding teaching of English. The use of ELT (English Language Teaching) resources may enhance the second language learning in students. The objectives of the study are; 1) to find out the availability of resources in English teaching in Pakistan and Indonesia 2) to explore the utilization of available resources in teaching of English in Pakistan and Indonesia 3) to investigate the use of A.V. Aids in English language teaching in Pakistan and Indonesia 4) to make a comparison of the availability and utilization of available resources in teaching English in Pakistan and Indonesia. The present study was aimed at the comparison of the Secondary Schools ELT resources and its effective utilization in Pakistan and Indonesia. The study used the mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) to get the results. The researchers collected 200 teachers and 40 students as a sample of study from different provinces of Pakistan and Indonesia. The researchers developed questionnaire for teachers and structured interview for students. The researchers personally visited the target sample and administered it. For comparison, statistical techniques of mean and standard deviation were used. The findings of the study revealed that Indonesian English teachers are more equipped with latest tools than the Pakistani English teachers. Indonesian teachers have the facility of internet; on the other hands Pakistani teachers have not. The study concluded that due to the use of ELT resources, student feel more interest in the classroom as well as it saves teachers’ time and energy.

This research has cautiously reviewed past studies on Meta cognitive strategies encompassing on planning, monitoring and evaluating learners. The basic purpose of these reviews was to identify strategies to assist children in enhancing their reading and understanding potential. On basis of those reviews seven well defined strategies were formulated for the teachers to apply in a group of 8-9 years old learners for developing reading comprehension by an experiemnt.Study indicates that if proper strategies applied during reading sessions, positive change in the learners is significant. This study is helpful for readers specially teachers to consider cognitive and metacognitive strategies as a mean to plan their reading lessons on vocabulary building, making connections, questioning, summarizing, predicting, visualizing and monitoring. Therefore, it is recommended that these strategies be incorporated for teaching English reading lessons.

Shelley’s lyrics of 1819-1820 have a common feature despite the diversity of the natural phenomena they touch upon. Shelley is seeking in the natural changes of the world analogies by which to reassure his most advocated faith that regeneration follows destruction. In this article I shall attempt to give substance to my claim that in these lyrics there is a pattern of scientific and ontological enquiry into Nature’s apparently chaotic changes, through which Shelley is trying to come to real understanding of the Permanent, amongst the Transitory. I will sometimes invoke the help of other poems such as Mont Blanc or Adonais

The present study was aimed to investigate the relationship between linguistic intelligence, ethnic identity, and bilingual Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. To run the study one hundred male students at the intermediate level in an English institute in Sanandaj, Iran with mastery in Kurdish as their mother tongue, Persian as their educational language at school, and English as the third language or better say a foreign language were selected to take part in the present study. An ex post facto research was designed in which the participants of the study received a valid test of reading comprehension (NELSON-Danny Reading Scale developed by Brown et al, 1993), the Linguistic Intelligence Questionnaire (Gardner, 1999), and the Ethnic Identity Measure (Roberts, et al. 1999) as the measurement devices of the study. The data gathered was put into SPSS version 21 and since the normality assumption was met, Pearson Correlation was run to find answers to the questions of the study, and the results were reported. The findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between linguistic intelligence and bilingual Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Also, there is a significant relationship between ethnic identity and bilingual Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and lastly, there is a significant relationship between ethnic identity and bilingual Iranian EFL learners’ linguistic intelligence. The findings of the present study could be used in the research and practical work pertained to teaching English in the bilingual areas of Iran and other countries with similar status, ethno linguistics studies, and teaching English as a foreign language in different places.

The purpose of the study is to design a framework of syllabus to teach and develop study skills of students in the context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) with a special focus on the language needs of target group- engineering Students belonging to Karunya University at Coimbatore, employing the linguistic and thematic components of a science fiction titled ‘Star fish’ by Peter Watts. Unlike the ordinary science texts generally prescribed by EAP theorists and ESP/EAP teachers, science fictions as course material would make the learning process interesting, and simultaneously would enhance the study skills much needed for the professional success of the Engineering students.

This article examines the effectiveness of experiential learning method in the educational environment. While training is often viewed as a means toward self-awareness and acquisition of knowledge and skills, its overriding goal is change. It is argued that experiential learning activities are critical to the mission of bringing in change in communicative capabilities of learners. It contains five-step model and illustrates how experiential learning activities contribute to each step. Conventional teaching and training are based mainly on knowledge acquisition and skills transfer, but this does not address specific issues related to individual growth. Experiential learning is a powerful way to address individual growth and potential. The present study proved that the use of experiential learning techniques helped students to gain exposure in a stimulating and interactive environment. It also provided students opportunities to talk and listen to each other’s responses to questions, and to the teachers.

This study sought to test Robinson’s (1995a; 2003b) cognitive hypothesis by investigating the effect of task complexity on L2 narrative oral production. In order to homogenize the participants, Cambridge Placement was taken from among 74 students of the Iran Language Institute and 44 of them were chosen. Independent sample T-tests were used for between group comparisons. According to the hypotheses, Pre-task planning time allowed second language speakers to activate words and apply a series of problem-solving mechanisms prior to task performance and may take stress away from L2 speakers so that they can meet task demands and hopefully, stretch their interlanguage. The data can shed some lights on how production is affected by different degrees of cognitive complexity and also in pedagogic contexts can be easily manipulated to promote fluency and accuracy if planning time is provided.

As Ellis (1997) underscores, it is mandatory that we evaluate every single textbook used to teach a language. The present study aimedto evaluate Learning to Read English for Pre-University Students (Birjandi et. al), currently taught at Iranian high schools. To this purpose, 75 high school EFL teachers were given Litz (2000)textbook evaluation questionaire. Their answers were analyzed based on a Likert scale. The results of the study showed that the textbook mostly did not live up to the teachers standards, mainly because it has ignored listening, and writing skills and does not follow a communicative approach in teaching different skills and components of language. Results of this study have implications both for teaching and material development.

The present research tends to investigate the relationship between the learners’ creativity and English proficiency among Iranian EFL learners. It also tends to reveal whether there is a relationship between the learners’ creativity and gender on their English proficiency. It also explores the relationship between the learners’ creativity and gender. The participants in this study consisted of 150 undergraduate university students including 46 males and 104 females, majoring in English as a foreign language, from Shiraz Azad University. Two research instruments were used to gather the needed data for this study: 1. Torrance Test of Verbal Creativity. 2. Language Proficiency Test. Correlation coefficient, two-way ANOVA and T-test were used to analyze the collected data and the results were found as follows: 1) There is a significant relationship between the learners’ creativity and their English proficiency among EFL learners of Shiraz Azad University. 2) There is no significant relationship between the learners’ creativity and gender on their English proficiency among EFL learners of Shiraz Azad University. 3) There is a significant relationship between the learners’ creativity and their gender among EFL learners of Shiraz Azad University.