Students’ perceptions of the impact of EGP and ESP courses on their English language development: Voices from Saudi Arabia

Gaffas, Zainab

doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100797

Cited by 44 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This allowed the researchers to ask open-ended questions to ensure respondents give their broad perspective about the topic of the study. Interviews allow a researcher to probe and get an in-depth meaning of the feelings, perceptions and attitudes of participants (Gaffas, 2019 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I’m not against online teaching, but what about us?”: ICT in Ghana post Covid-19

2020

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Globally, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is regarded as a dependable vehicle for facilitating educational reform and development, a platform for communication, and as a means to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4). Since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and declaration of the SDG 4, many countries have opted to embrace the lifelong education for all by integrating ICT in teaching and learning at all school levels. The Ghanaian Government's initiative to ensure "education anytime anywhere for everyone" by revolutionizing teaching and learning through ICT has faced a lot of challenges and criticisms. The main mission of the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) in 2003 was to transform Ghana into an information and technology-driven high-income economy through education, but this goal is yet to be realized. In the wake of the COVID-19 which has forced many countries and educational sectors to adopt online learning, there is a need to discuss the effectiveness of online learning and barriers to online learning in the developing contexts, and how to successfully integrate ICT in schools for online learning, especially rural schools where students' educational careers are in jeopardy because they benefit less from online learning. The paper identifies critical factors that affect online learning, recommends post COVID-19 strategies to promote e-learning for policymakers in education and the government, and concludes with a conceptual model for emergency transition to elearning.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I’m not against online teaching, but what about us?”: ICT in Ghana post Covid-19

2020

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“…For instance, participants were asked how they were involved in the decision to shift delivery online. This also allowed the researcher to probe for the in-depth meaning of the participants’ feelings and perceptions (Gaffas 2019 ). The questions designed for the interviews were premised on the Theory of care and extant literature but were screened for accuracy and validity in the Ghanaian context.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Echoing the voices of SWVIs under Covid-19 inspired online learning

Amponsah

2021

Educ Inf Technol

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With the kind of interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many higher institutions, including the University of Ghana, swiftly shifted their engagements online which might have come with its setbacks. In view of that, this phenomenographic design study sought to investigate and document the qualitatively different perspectives of thirteen students with visual impairments (SWVIs) as they transitioned and studied fully in an online space. The experiences of the SWVIs were captured in five themes that emerged from the analysis of the field data. The five themes are pre-COVID-19 academic experiences, [initial] reaction to online shift, preparation towards online shift, coping mechanisms in fully online learning spaces and preferred post-COVID-19 learning space. In the end, the SWVIs expressed more challenges with online learning than benefits and opted for a switch to the face-to-face mode post-COVID-19. Consequently, the study recommends inter alia, training for students and faculty to build sustainable online relationships; deployment of participatory technologies to build learner autonomy; and the need for the University to craft a policy of inclusiveness which embeds ‘ubuntu’ (common humanity) and human awareness to reverse inequalities among its students.

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“…Vahdany and Gerivani (2016) demonstrated that in an EFL context in Iran both medical students and General Practitioners valued reading skills the most, with speaking being the least important for both groups. Gaffas (2019) found that in an EFL context in Saudi Arabia a lack of rich L2 vocabulary was students' greatest difficulty and this negatively impacted their performance in all four English skills. Kayaoğlu and Dağ Akbaş (2016) indicated that in an EFL context in Turkey students' priorities in learning English were to be able to interact with others and achieve a high score in the language exam.…”

Section: B Needs Analysismentioning

confidence: 91%

English for General Academic Purposes or English for Specific Purposes? Language Learning Needs of Medical Students at a Chinese University

Heron

2021

tpls

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The debate over the appropriacy of EGAP and ESP has been an ongoing concern in many higher education contexts. In this paper we discuss how teachers’ and students’ perceptions of English curriculum needs are reflected in the conflict between short-term goals, such as passing exams, and long-term goals, such as career development. Students, doctors and teachers at a medical university in the central part of China were asked about their needs through questionnaires and structured interviews. The findings suggest that whilst many felt the need for medical English to be taught in the early years, particularly through medical texts, there was also push back due to the need for general English to pass English exams, such as CET4/6. We argue that through the incorporation of medical texts, students can start to develop their medical English from the first year of university. This not only ensures the motivation for students to study medical English for professional purposes, but also fulfills the perceived need to prepare for the exam.

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Students’ perceptions of the impact of EGP and ESP courses on their English language development: Voices from Saudi Arabia

Cited by 44 publications

References 47 publications

“I’m not against online teaching, but what about us?”: ICT in Ghana post Covid-19

“I’m not against online teaching, but what about us?”: ICT in Ghana post Covid-19

Echoing the voices of SWVIs under Covid-19 inspired online learning

English for General Academic Purposes or English for Specific Purposes? Language Learning Needs of Medical Students at a Chinese University

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