Teaching EFL to Jordanian Students: New Strategies for Enhancing English Acquisition in a Distinct Middle Eastern Student Population

Abdo, Ibrahem Bani; Breen, Gerald-Mark

doi:10.4236/ce.2010.11007

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The debate about the use of L1 for teaching English in the EFL context of Arab nations have divergent opinions. Palmer et al (2007) disagreeing with Abdo & Breen (2010) suggests that Arabic should be allowed to be used at school to help students learn English language skills. In addition to using Arabic, Palmer et al (ibid) recommends that text books must be appropriate and accommodative to the culture and linguistic needs of Arab students.…”

Section: Factors That Cause Speaking Difficulties To Efl Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedagogical Practices Employed in Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills at Taif University

Soomro¹

2018

IJEL

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The aim of instructing speaking skills is to help students develop better oral communication. That is possible if teachers employ better techniques to enhance the use of English in the class and motivate their learners to utilize important strategies for practicing speaking skills. The current study investigates pedagogical practices in use by English professionals to teach speaking skills to their students, and strategies and approaches applied by leaners to improve their speaking skills. Questionnaire survey was conducted by recruiting 184 male and female undergraduate students from different streams at Taif University. The data was analyzed through SPSS and presented with the help of descriptive tables. The results of this study reveal that teachers moderately employed important techniques and strategies in their teaching. Among the strategies and techniques which were not frequently employed by English professionals were: role-play, group work, pair discussion, picture description, dialogue, debating, and storytelling. Students also lacked in utilizing important strategies which hinder their progress in developing better speaking skills. The attitude of learners towards learning a foreign language was negatively affected by the level of difficulties faced by them. The study concluded that teachers' role is very important to develop a favorable learning environment and involve students to practice English through various useful techniques and strategies necessary for the development of speaking skills.Keywords: pedagogical practices, strategies, techniques, attitude, difficulties and learners' experience of speaking skills BackgroundEnglish is an international language; it can be utilized to communicate with people either native or non-native ones. However, it has more application in academic sector because all students in the universities require English to study and search information in this language. That is why a number of universities in the world would have to put English as a necessary academic requirement. At higher education stage English language is mostly incorporated as medium of instruction (Murray & Christison, 2010). It is most essential to have fluency in communication when speaking English as foreign language (EFL) or second language (ESL) when it comes to oral communication. Moreover, it is complex phenomena to communicate but simultaneously most significant to make progress in various fields (Al-Sibai, 2004, p. 3).The aim of instructing speaking skills is to make students' oral commination better. That is why the main objective of teaching activities in the class should be enhancing language use of students (Haozhang, 1997). Previously, the oral skills were ignored deliberately with a misconception that they will develop naturally later on and was believed that the cognitive skills in writing activities will generate oral skills (Chaney, 1998). Further, Ur (1996 believes that among all four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) speaking is the most important one beca...

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Section: Factors That Cause Speaking Difficulties To Efl Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedagogical Practices Employed in Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills at Taif University

Soomro¹

2018

IJEL

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“…Despite, English is generally integrated into Jordanian education and culture because of business, political, and touristic-related demands from international, interactive populations, used as foreign language (EFL), most college students or even graduated ones have difficulties when attempting to produce an utterance or speech (Bani Abdo & Breen, 2010). Although these college English major students have accomplished many oral courses, they are unable to produce a connected speech (Al Khotaba, 2010).…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…"Of course, not all Jordanian citizens choose to live in regions of the country where English is spoken or used. Hence, it depends on the ambitions of the individual students and whether these individuals desire to venture into occupations or situations that will require a proficient or functional level of English understanding, including oral and written communication skills" (Bani Abdo & Breen, 2010). Speaking is a way to exchange feelings, emotions, and demands.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Dense Use of Lexicalization in Dialogues by EFL Students at Jordan University-Aqaba

Al-Awabdeh¹,

Abdo²

2017

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This qualitative and quantitative analysis, researching language and social interaction, is one of its kinds, to examine the current ESL pedagogical strategies in native and residential Jordanian college students. It uses lexicalization in spoken dialogues produced by English language and literature students at the Department of English Language and Literature at Jordan University/Aqaba branch. It includes 30 participants selected randomly. The study uses Hoey's (1991) Matrix of Lexical Cohesion and a Semi-structured Interview to collect data from the participants. The findings indicated that the density of lexicalization has a significant contribution in the creation of cohesion of the spoken dialogues. This research recommends that further research be conducted to investigate other types of spoken dialogues

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“…The language barrier must be taken into account by teachers that it is not an easy task to bare (Bani Abdo & Breen, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animated Videos Prove to be Beneficial in Teaching English Grammar as EFL: A Neurological Study of How Students Learn and Retain English Grammar

Abdo¹,

Al-Awabdeh²

2017

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In the education field, there are different theories that apply to teaching in general and specific ones targeting mode of teaching English grammar as a foreign language. This study involves neurological evidence through using animation videos which promotes the idea that learning and teaching in an enjoyable environment are much more conducive, than learning in an unpleasant environment. Using animated videos presentations in teaching students English grammar by explaining the English grammar rules, the used videos required too much attention in learning specific words such as "use of conjunctions" and "verbs" in a humorous and economical way. The study targeted 9 students of the fourth grade at an EFL environment and the sample included only a public school of different achieving levels. Finally, the results of the analysis indicate that this technique helped students of fourth graders to memorize the rules in an easier way. The students also felt happy of seeing animation videos as a way of learning English grammar which suggests that students indeed retain much more when learning through animated videos than when learning in a traditional manner (through drills, grammar exercises from a workbook). The study findings support that the educational pedagogy is applicable to language theory as well. It promotes the idea that students of younger ages should be provided with the opportunities to engage in animated videos in order to enhance the learning process.

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Teaching EFL to Jordanian Students: New Strategies for Enhancing English Acquisition in a Distinct Middle Eastern Student Population

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

Pedagogical Practices Employed in Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills at Taif University

Pedagogical Practices Employed in Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills at Taif University

The Dense Use of Lexicalization in Dialogues by EFL Students at Jordan University-Aqaba

Animated Videos Prove to be Beneficial in Teaching English Grammar as EFL: A Neurological Study of How Students Learn and Retain English Grammar

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