الاثنين، 17 أكتوبر 2016

Motivational orientations and their effect on English Language Learning: A Study in EFL Saudi Context

Motivational orientations and their effect on English Language Learning: A Study in EFL Saudi Context.
(Ahmad Altasan, (2016
 The aim of the present study is to explore integrative and instrumental orientations and their influence on foreign/second language acquisition. Then, it investigates Saudi students' motivation to learn English and the correlations between their motivational outlooks and their English achievement scores. A modified 18-item survey, adopted and modified from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) developed by R. C. Gardner (1985), was administered to two groups of non-English major EFL students at two technical colleges from two different cities, Dammam and ArRass, in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected simultaneously and were subjected to some basic statistical analyses, such as mean and standard deviation. Overall, findings indicated that although Dammam group obtained higher English achievement scores, they were similar to ArRass group in respect of their motivational outlooks, which means that achievement scores were affected by other variables. In this study, the attitude toward English variable was examined and the results showed significant difference between the two groups.

السبت، 14 مايو 2016

English Language Provision in Australia within the Global Context of ELT

English Language Provision in Australia within the Global Context of ELT.
(Ahmad Altasan, (2016 
 The first part of this report reviews briefly different purposes for learning English worldwide in the current context of globalisation. The second part of this paper researches and critically analyses English language provision in Australia through following topics: Types of programs and providers in the different sectors and their purposes for teaching English; Funding sources for programs; Types and provenance of clients; Nature of curricula, courses and credentials within programs; Purposes of and approaches to language assessment in different sectors;. Regulation of the sectors. By examining a range of published journal articles, facts sheet, discussion feedback, evaluation reports and official internet sites, data were collected, edited, coded, classified and organized. Overall, Australia EL industry is constantly evolving to keep up with the changing needs of the global ELT market. Public and private sectors are strong and making a great progress though quite unstable and sensitive to the external challenges and fluctuations in demand.

الثلاثاء، 5 أبريل 2016

The Pragmalinguistic Competence in Requests: A Comparison between One Native and Two Non-native Speakers of English

The Pragmalinguistic Competence in Requests: A Comparison between One Native and Two Non-native Speakers of English.
(Ahmad Altasan, (2016
 Speech acts are a very important part of pragmatics in any language. There are many types of acts (e.g., request, complain, question, etc.) associated with the speaker’s utterances. Searle (1972) calls production of linguistic communication ‘a speech act’ (137). The present study examines how two Arab learners of English at two levels of proficiency modify requests compared to a native speaker. The performances by the three informants were compared in terms of internal modification (lexical and phrasal downgraders) and external modification (supportive moves) used. The data were collected by means of a Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Overall, the results revealed that although the advanced-level learner outperformed the intermediate-level learner in using lexical and syntactic mitigators, both learners underuse internal and external modifiers compared to the native speaker. This study addressed three questions that are associated with three directional hypotheses: Hypothesis 1, intermediate or advanced learners of a second language underuse internal modifiers compared to L2 native speakers. Hypothesis 2, advanced learners could vary the syntactic form of the request while the intermediate learners relied heavily on modals and the politeness marker 'please'. Hypothesis 3, second language learners have been said to display verbose pragmatic behavior by producing frequent and lengthy supportive moves (Hassel, 2001).