Correlation between anxiety and academic self-concept in interpreter trainees

This paper focuses on two basic issues: the anxiety-generating nature of the interpreting task and the relevance of interpreter trainees’ academic self-concept. The first has already been acknowledged, although not extensively researched, in several papers, and the second has only been mentioned briefly in interpreting literature. This study seeks to examine the relationship between the anxiety and academic self-concept constructs among interpreter trainees. An adapted version of the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986), the Academic Autoconcept Scale (Schmidt, Messoulam & Molina, 2008) and a background information questionnaire were used to collect data. Students’ t-Test analysis results indicated that female students reported experiencing significantly higher levels of anxiety than male students. No significant gender difference in self-concept levels was found. Correlation analysis results suggested, on the one hand, that younger would-be interpreters suffered from higher anxiety levels and students with higher marks tended to have lower anxiety levels; and, on the other hand, that younger students had lower self-concept levels and higher-ability students held higher self-concept levels. In addition, the results revealed that students with higher anxiety levels tended to have lower self-concept levels. Based on these findings, recommendations for interpreting pedagogy are discussed.

Digging up the frequency of phrasal verbs in English for the Police: the case of "up"

The present study focuses on the frequency of phrasal verbs with the particle up in the context of crime and police investigative work. This research emerges from the need to enlarge McCarthy and O’Dell’s (2004) scope from purely criminal behavior to police investigative actions. To do so, we relied on a corpus of 504,124 running words made up of spoken dialogues extracted from the script of the American TV series Castle shown on ABC since 2009. Based on Rudzka-Ostyn’s (2003) cognitive motivations for the particle up, we have identified five different meaning extensions for our phrasal verbs. Drawing from these findings, we have designed pedagogical activities for those L2 learners that study English at the Police Academy.

Item and task difficulty in a B2 reading examination: perceptions of test-takers and CEFR alignment experts compared with psychometric measurements

The article presents a study of a CEFR B2-level reading subtest that is part of the Slovenian national secondary school leaving examination in English as a foreign language, and compares the test-taker actual performance (objective difficulty) with the test-taker and expert perceptions of item difficulty (subjective difficulty). The study also analyses the test-takers’ comments on item difficulty obtained from a while-reading questionnaire. The results are discussed in the framework of the existing research in the fields of (the assessment of) reading comprehension, and are addressed with regard to their implications for item-writing, FL teaching and curriculum development.

Receptive Vocabulary of CLIL and Non-CLIL Primary and Secondary School Learners

CLIL instruction has been reported to be beneficial for foreign language vocabulary learning since CLIL students show higher vocabulary profiles than students of their same age in traditional EFL contexts. However, to our knowledge, the receptive vocabulary knowledge of CLIL and non-CLIL learners at the end of primary and secondary education has not been examined yet. Hence, this study aims at comparing the receptive vocabulary size 79 CLIL primary learners with the receptive vocabulary knowledge of 331 non-CLIL learners at the end of primary and secondary school. Sex-based differences were also analysed. The 2k Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was used for the purposes of the study. Results revealed that learners’ receptive vocabulary sizes lie within the most frequent 1000 words, non-CLIL secondary school students throw better results than primary students but the differences between the secondary group and the CLIL group are not statistically significant. As for sex-based differences, we found no significant differences among the groups. These findings led us to believe that the CLIL approach offers a benefit for vocabulary acquisition since CLIL learners have been exposed to the foreign language for a shorter period of time and the results are quite similar to their non-CLIL secondary school partners.

English product names and descriptions in two Swedish supermarkets : A quantitative and qualitative analysis

This study aimed to investigate what proportion of two household staples, soap and crispbread products, in two Swedish supermarkets had English product names or descriptions, and attempted a qualitative analysis of the English language used. Out of the Swedish brands, 54-62% of the soap products had names and/or product descriptions containing English, compared to 13-15% of the crispbread; these differences were in line with previous research, suggesting English is used more to market certain product groups than other ones. Earlier studies have also proposed that English could be considered an ‘elite’ language in Sweden, and it might thus be more commonly found on more exclusive/expensive products, or in the supermarket primarily aiming at higher-income customers. However, the differences between the two supermarkets, and between the more and less expensive products, were not great enough for any firm conclusions. When products had a mixture of languages on the label, English was most often used for product names or part of names, not so often for product descriptions. Further studies with a larger amount of data would be required for more reliable conclusions, especially for the qualitative analyses. It would also be interesting to investigate customers’ attitudes towards the use of English on product labels.

Upper Secondary Students’ Beliefs About Learning English as a Foreign Language : A contrast between the students’ beliefs and the Swedish curriculum

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) entails different factors. Language learners use different strategies in order to make their language acquisition successful. Motivation and self-regulated learning are other factors that influence how successful the EFL learner is. This paper aims to analyze the beliefs of upper secondary students in a Swedish school about learning EFL, as well as how their beliefs relate to what is specified in the Swedish curriculum. An analysis of the differences between students’ beliefs and what is stated in the curriculum was done. A survey was conducted on a total of 54 students who were enrolled in the social sciences program. The results showed that students believed that motivation and self-regulated learning were important factors for a successful learning. For them, the language skill of reception is more important than production, which does not correspond with what it is stated in the national curriculum. First and second year students’ beliefs were similar in most of the cases, but not all of them.

Effects of a 12-week aerobic exercise intervention on eating behaviour, food cravings and 7-day energy intake and energy expenditure in inactive men

This study examined effects of 12 weeks of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on eating behaviour, food cravings and weekly energy intake and expenditure in inactive men. Eleven healthy men (mean ± SD: age, 26 ± 5 years; body mass index, 24.6 ± 3.8 kg/m2; maximum oxygen uptake, 43.1 ± 7.4 mL/kg/min) completed the 12-week supervised exercise programme. Body composition, health markers (e.g. blood pressure), eating behaviour, food cravings and weekly energy intake and expenditure were assessed before and after the exercise intervention. There were no intervention effects on weekly free-living energy intake (p=0.326, d=-0.12) and expenditure (p=0.799, d=0.04), or uncontrolled eating and emotional eating scores (p>0.05). However, there was a trend with a medium effect size (p=0.058, d=0.68) for cognitive restraint to be greater after the exercise intervention. Total food cravings (p=0.009, d=-1.19) and specific cravings of high-fat foods (p=0.023, d=-0.90), fast-food fats (p=0.009, d=-0.71) and carbohydrates/starches (p=0.009, d=-0.56) decreased from baseline to 12 weeks. Moreover, there was a trend with a large effect size for cravings of sweets (p=0.052, d=-0.86) to be lower after the exercise intervention. In summary, 12 weeks of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise reduced food cravings and increased cognitive restraint, however, these were not accompanied by changes in other eating behaviours and weekly energy intake and expenditure. The results indicate the importance of exercising for health improvements even when reductions in body mass are modest.

Towards guidelines for curriculum design and development in English language teacher education in Cambodian higher education institutions

In the current Cambodian higher education sector, there is little regulation of standards in curriculum design of undergraduate degrees in English language teacher education. The researcher, in the course of his professional work in the Curriculum and Policy Office at the Department of Higher Education, has seen evidence that most universities tend to copy their curriculum from one source, the curriculum of the Institute of Foreign Languages, the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Their programs fail to impose any entry standards, accepting students who pass the high school exam without any entrance examination. It is possible for a student to enter university with satisfactory scores in all subjects but English. Therefore, not many graduates are able to fulfil the professional requirements of the roles they are supposed to take. Neau (2010) claims that many Cambodian EFL teachers do not reach a high performance standard due to their low English language proficiency and poor background in teacher education. The main purpose of this study is to establish key guidelines for developing curricula for English language teacher education for all the universities across the country. It examines the content of the Bachelor‘s degree of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (B Ed in TEFL) and Bachelor‘s degree of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BA in TESOL) curricula adopted in Cambodian universities on the basis of criteria proposed in current curriculum research. It also investigates the perspectives of Cambodian EFL teachers on the areas of knowledge and skill they need in order to perform their English teaching duties in Cambodia today. The areas of knowledge and skill offered in the current curricula at Cambodian higher education institutions (HEIs), the framework of the knowledge base for EFL teacher education and general higher education, and the areas of knowledge and skill Cambodian EFL teachers perceive to be important, are compared so as to identify any gaps in the current English language teacher education curricula in the Cambodian HEIs. The existence of gaps show what domains of knowledge and skill need to be included in the English language teacher education curricula at Cambodian HEIs. These domains are those identified by previous curriculum researchers in both general and English language teacher education at tertiary level. Therefore, the present study provides useful insights into the importance of including appropriate content in English language teacher education curricula. Mixed methods are employed in this study. The course syllabi and the descriptions within the curricula in five Cambodian HEIs are analysed qualitatively based on the framework of knowledge and skills for EFL teachers, which is formed by looking at the knowledge base for second language teachers suggested by the methodologists and curriculum specialists whose work is elaborated on the review of literature. A quantitative method is applied to analyse the perspectives of 120 Cambodian EFL teachers on areas of knowledge and skills they should possess. The fieldwork was conducted between June and August, 2014. The analysis reveals that the following areas are included in the curricula at the five universities: communication skills, general knowledge, knowledge of teaching theories, teaching skills, pedagogical reasoning and decision making skills, subject matter knowledge, contextual knowledge, cognitive abilities, and knowledge of social issues. Additionally, research skills are included in three curricula while society and community involvement is in only one. Further, information and communication technology, which is outlined in the Education Strategies Plan (2006-2010), forms part of four curricula while leadership skills form part of two. This study demonstrates ultimately that most domains that are directly and indirectly related to language teaching competence are not sufficiently represented in the current curricula. On the basis of its findings, the study concludes with a set of guidelines that should inform the design and development of TESOL and TEFL curricula in Cambodia.

THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNTACTIC KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION

The main purpose of the current study was to examine the role of vocabulary knowledge (VK) and syntactic knowledge (SK) in L2 listening comprehension, as well as their relative significance. Unlike previous studies, the current project employed assessment tasks to measure aural and proceduralized VK and SK. In terms of VK, to avoid under-representing the construct, measures of both breadth (VB) and depth (VD) were included. Additionally, the current study examined the role of VK and SK by accounting for individual differences in two important cognitive factors in L2 listening: metacognitive knowledge (MK) and working memory (WM). Also, to explore the role of VK and SK more fully, the current study accounted for the negative impact of anxiety on WM and L2 listening. The study was carried out in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, and participants were 263 Iranian learners at a wide range of English proficiency from lower-intermediate to advanced. Participants took a battery of ten linguistic, cognitive and affective measures. Then, the collected data were subjected to several preliminary analyses, but structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used as the primary analysis method to answer the study research questions. Results of the preliminary analyses revealed that MK and WM were significant predictors of L2 listening ability; thus, they were kept in the main SEM analyses. The significant role of WM was only observed when the negative effect of anxiety on WM was accounted for. Preliminary analyses also showed that VB and VD were not distinct measures of VK. However, the results also showed that if VB and VD were considered separate, VD was a better predictor of L2 listening success. The main analyses of the current study revealed a significant role for both VK and SK in explaining success in L2 listening comprehension, which differs from findings from previous empirical studies. However, SEM analysis did not reveal a statistically significant difference in terms of the predictive power of the two linguistic factors. Descriptive results of the SEM analysis, along with results from regression analysis, indicated to a more significant role for VK.

The role of musical aptitude in the pronunciation of English vowels among Polish learners of English

It has long been held that people who have musical training or talent acquire L2 pronunciation more successfully than those that do not. Indeed, there have been empirical studies to support this hypothesis (Pastuszek-Lipińska 2003, Fonseca-Mora et al. 2011, Zatorre and Baum 2012). However, in many of such studies, musical abilities in subjects were mostly verified through questionnaires rather than tested in a reliable, empirical manner. Therefore, we run three different musical hearing tests, i.e. pitch perception test, musical memory test, and rhythm perception test (Mandell 2009) to measure the actual musical aptitude in our subjects. The main research question is whether a better musical ear correlates with a higher rate of acquisition of English vowels in Polish EFL learners. Our group consists of 40 Polish university students studying English as their major who learn the British pronunciation model during an intense pronunciation course. 10 male and 30 female subjects with mean age of 20.1 were recorded in a recording studio. The procedure comprised spontaneous conversations, reading passages and reading words in isolation. Vowel measurements were conducted in Praat in all three speech styles and several consonantal contexts. The assumption was that participants who performed better in musical tests would produce vowels that are closer to the Southern British English model. We plotted them onto vowel charts and calculated the Euclidean distances. Preliminary results show that there is potential correlation between specific aspects of musical hearing and different elements of pronunciation. The study is a longitudinal project and will encompass two more years, during which we will repeat the recording procedure twice to measure the participants’ progress in mastering the English pronunciation and comparing it with their musical aptitude.

Developing reading sub-skills: 15 Lesson Plans Adapted from "The Canterbury Tales”for teenagers

Este trabajo enfatiza el uso de la literatura en Clases EFL. La literatura es usada como una técnica para enseñar las cuatro destrezas básicas: lectura, habilidad de escuchar, escritura y la producción oral. Provee herramientas para mejorar vocabulario, pronunciación y estructuras gramaticales. El leer literatura provee beneficios enlistados en este documento. Además, algunas desventajas también son presentadas. La falta de: capacitación de profesores, interés por parte de los estudiantes y material propio de lectura, hacen de la literatura una tarea difícil de completar. Seleccionar el material correcto para una Clase EFL es el aspecto más importante para generar el interés por la lectura en los estudiantes. En este caso los adolescentes son el objetivo de este estudio. “The Canterbury Tales” por Geoffrey Chaucer, es la obra en la cual este proyecto está basado. La obra literaria de Geoffrey Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales” le da al lector la oportunidad de imaginar una cultura diferente, el comportamiento de las personas, sentimientos, diversión y moralejas con las que las personas se identifican. Quince planificaciones de clase adaptadas de “The Canterbury Tales” es la mejor herramienta para cultivar el interés por la lectura. Las más importantes sub-destrezas son mostradas en estas planificaciones. Cada una de estas sub-destrezas demuestra actividades sugeridas que pueden ser practicadas dentro del aula. La incorporación de la lectura en una Clase EFL facilita el trabajo del profesor con estudiantes quienes encontraran en la lectura facilidad y diversión.

Perceived benefits, motivations and preferences for foreign language learning by older adults. Insights from an initiative in Cuenca, Ecuador

El presente estudio analiza las percepciones y actitudes que tienen los adultos mayores de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador hacia el aprendizaje del inglés. Un total de 151 adultos mayores (con edad promedio de 70.3 años) respondió a un cuestionario con 50 ítems. Se llevó a cabo análisis factoriales, de regresión múltiple y cluster con el propósito de definir las dimensiones subyacentes en las percepciones, motivaciones y ambiciones de los adultos mayores para aprender un idioma extranjero, y su relación con las características sociodemográficas de los participantes. Los resultados señalan que el interés por estudiar un idioma extranjero está basado en la percepción de que aquello mejora la interacción social de las personas, su desarrollo personal, el funcionamiento y mantenimiento de la mente y memoria, y que activa y vuelve su vida más dinámica. Los resultados además revelaron que la principal motivación de los participantes para tomar un curso de inglés está relacionada con el potencial de usar este idioma en la vida diaria y el de leer profusamente en esa lengua extranjera. La duración del curso y la obtención de un certificado fueron factores determinantes que permitieron agrupar a los participantes en función de sus preferencias en lo que respecta al diseño práctico de un curso de inglés. Adicionalmente, la edad y el nivel de instrucción fueron variables determinantes de motivación que influyeron en la mayor parte de las respuestas dadas por los participantes.

Läxor i engelskundervisningen : En studie om hur lärare ser på engelskläxor och ordinlärning i årskurs 4-6

Läxor är en omdiskuterad fråga i den svenska skoldebatten med många argument både för och emot och för att kunna ta ställning i frågan är det viktigt att det finns tillgänglig kunskap om läxans för- och nackdelar. Detta en empirisk studie om lärares inställning till läxor och ordinlärning i engelskundervisning i grundskolans årskurs 4-6. Tidigare forskning om läxor och ordinlärning beskrivs och under studien har sju verksamma engelsklärare intervjuats. Metoden som används är en strukturerad intervju, där frågor har antecknats på förhand innan intervjun genomförts. Detta har gjorts för att minimera risken att informanternas svar påverkas av forskarens följdfrågor. Intervjuerna har spelats in och transkriberats för att sedan analyseras utifrån studiens teoretiska perspektiv, kognitiv lingvistik. Resultatet av analysen redovisas i studien och diskuteras med koppling till tidigare forskning och det teoretiska perspektivet. Resultatet av studien är att lärare idag använder sig av flera olika typer av läxor i engelska för att främja elevernas ordinlärning och glosläxan är den vanligast förekommande varianten. Lärarnas åsikter och föreställningar om läxor och ordinlärning skiljer sig mycket, vilket även reflekteras i forskningen om huruvida läxor bör användas och hur ordkunskap bäst undervisas.

The teaching of reading English in a foreign language in Libyan universities: methods and models

This study focuses on the learning and teaching of Reading in English as a Foreign Language (REFL), in Libya. The study draws on an action research process in which I sought to look critically at students and teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Libya as they learned and taught REFL in four Libyan research sites. The Libyan EFL educational system is influenced by two main factors: the method of teaching the Holy-Quran and the long-time ban on teaching EFL by the former Libyan regime under Muammar Gaddafi. Both of these factors have affected the learning and teaching of REFL and I outline these contextual factors in the first chapter of the thesis. This investigation, and the exploration of the challenges that Libyan university students encounter in their REFL, is supported by attention to reading models. These models helped to provide an analytical framework and starting point for understanding the many processes involved in reading for meaning and in reading to satisfy teacher instructions. The theoretical framework I adopted was based, mainly and initially, on top-down, bottom-up, interactive and compensatory interactive models. I drew on these models with a view to understanding whether and how the processes of reading described in the models could be applied to the reading of EFL students and whether these models could help me to better understand what was going on in REFL. The diagnosis stage of the study provided initial data collected from four Libyan research sites with research tools including video-recorded classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers before and after lesson observation, and think-aloud protocols (TAPs) with 24 students (six from each university) in which I examined their REFL reading behaviours and strategies. This stage indicated that the majority of students shared behaviours such as reading aloud, reading each word in the text, articulating the phonemes and syllables of words, or skipping words if they could not pronounce them. Overall this first stage indicated that alternative methods of teaching REFL were needed in order to encourage ‘reading for meaning’ that might be based on strategies related to eventual interactive reading models adapted for REFL. The second phase of this research project was an Intervention Phase involving two team-teaching sessions in one of the four stage one universities. In each session, I worked with the teacher of one group to introduce an alternative method of REFL. This method was based on teaching different reading strategies to encourage the students to work towards an eventual interactive way of reading for meaning. A focus group discussion and TAPs followed the lessons with six students in order to discuss the 'new' method. Next were two video-recorded classroom observations which were followed by an audio-recorded discussion with the teacher about these methods. Finally, I conducted a Skype interview with the class teacher at the end of the semester to discuss any changes he had made in his teaching or had observed in his students' reading with respect to reading behaviour strategies, and reactions and performance of the students as he continued to use the 'new' method. The results of the intervention stage indicate that the teacher, perhaps not surprisingly, can play an important role in adding to students’ knowledge and confidence and in improving their REFL strategies. For example, after the intervention stage, students began to think about the title, and to use their own background knowledge to comprehend the text. The students employed, also, linguistic strategies such as decoding and, above all, the students abandoned the behaviour of reading for pronunciation in favour of reading for meaning. Despite the apparent efficacy of the alternative method, there are, inevitably, limitations related to the small-scale nature of the study and the time I had available to conduct the research. There are challenges, too, related to the students’ first language, the idiosyncrasies of the English language, the teacher training and continuing professional development of teachers, and the continuing political instability of Libya. The students’ lack of vocabulary and their difficulties with grammatical functions such as phrasal and prepositional verbs, forms which do not exist in Arabic, mean that REFL will always be challenging. Given such constraints, the ‘new’ methods I trialled and propose for adoption can only go so far in addressing students’ difficulties in REFL. Overall, the study indicates that the Libyan educational system is underdeveloped and under resourced with respect to REFL. My data indicates that the teacher participants have received little to no professional developmental that could help them improve their teaching in REFL and skills in teaching EFL. These circumstances, along with the perennial problem of large but varying class sizes; student, teacher and assessment expectations; and limited and often poor quality resources, affect the way EFL students learn to read in English. Against this background, the thesis concludes by offering tentative conclusions; reflections on the study, including a discussion of its limitations, and possible recommendations designed to improve REFL learning and teaching in Libyan universities.