Search results for: online Arabic language learning

Authors: Samar Mohamed Magdy Abdelrahim

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This study is an attempt to investigate the phenomenon of code-switching that takes place between Arabic and English in social discourse among high, well-educated, and young people in Egypt. The study aims at digging deeper to extract the trigger factors of such occurrences, namely when people encounter embarrassing situations in their daily conversations. Nowadays, most young Egyptians tend to use English words in certain situations that might make them feel embarrassed. To disguise their feelings and soften the impact of these words in the context, they code-switch (CS) from Arabic into English. To obtain accurate results, the study utilized a quantitative analysis approach that combines personal observations and a questionnaire to examine the phenomenon appropriately. The questionnaire was designed to categorize different types of embarrassing topics to be evaluated by participants. These topics include certain parts of the human body, types of clothes, taboo words, and specific medical conditions. Many studies have examined the use of CS as a prestigious way of communicating and expressing solidarity between Arabic and English. Other studies have dealt with switches that take place in classrooms. However, not many studies have paid attention to this angle of CS, especially in Egypt. The results conclude that gender and the circumstances that surround the conversation are essential factors of CS since females tend to switch codes more than males in embarrassing situations. According to the study, CS serves the socio-pragmatic function in terms of helping young, well-educated bilinguals express themselves in a second language that would be distressing in the first.

Keywords: code-switching, embarrassment, Arabic, English

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Authors: Thelma Mort

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This empirical, qualitative research uses interviews of four intermediate phase English language student teachers at one university in South Africa and is an exploration of student teacher learning on their teaching practicum in their penultimate year of the initial teacher education course. The country’s post-apartheid language in education policy provides a context to this study in that children move from mother tongue language of instruction in foundation phase to English as a language of instruction in Intermediate phase. There is another layer of context informing this study which is the school context; the student teachers’ reflections are from their teaching practicum in resource constrained schools, which make up more than 75% of schools in South Africa. The findings were that in these schools, deep biases existed to local languages, that language was being used as a proxy for social class, and that conditions necessary for language acquisition were absent. The student teachers’ attitudes were in contrast to those found in the schools, namely that they had various pragmatic approaches to overcoming obstacles and that they saw language as enabling interdisciplinary work. This study describes language issues, tensions created by policy in South African schools and also supplies a regional account of learning to teach in resource constrained schools in Cape Town, where such language tensions are more inflated. The central findings in this research illuminate attitudes to language and language education in these teaching practicum schools and the complexity of learning to be a language teacher in these contexts. This study is one of the few local empirical studies regarding language teaching in the classroom and language teacher education; as such it offers some background to the country’s poor performance in both international and national literacy assessments.

Keywords: language teaching, narrative, post apartheid, South Africa, student teacher

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Authors: Norfishah Mat Rabi, Rosma Osman, Norziana Mat Rabi

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It is difficult for autistic children to mix with and be around with other people. Language difficulties are a problem that affects their social life. A lack of knowledge and ability in language are factors that greatly influence their behavior, and their ability to communicate and interact. Autistic children need to be assisted to improve their language abilities through the use of suitable learning resources. This study is conducted to identify weather graphic animation resources can help autistic children learn and use transitive verbs more effectively. The study was conducted in a rural secondary school in Penang, Malaysia. The research subject comprised of three autistic students ranging in age from 14 years to 16 years. The 14-year-old student is placed in A Class and two 16-year-old students placed in B Class. The class placement of the subjects is based on the diagnostic test results conducted by the teacher and not based on age. Data collection is done through observation and interviews for the duration of five weeks; with the researcher allocating 30 minutes for every learning activity carried out. The research finding shows that the subjects learn transitive verbs better using graphic animation compared to static pictures. It is hoped that this study will give a new perspective towards the learning processes of autistic children.

Keywords: graphic animation, autistic children, language learning, teaching

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Authors: Nasreddin Ahmed

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Despite the ostensible extant differences amongst world languages’ structures that have culminated in the divergence in orthographic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems that each language has, research in cognitive linguistic strives to establish the claim that such differences are merely prima facie of a totalized universal system of signification.Linguists , since Chomsky, have never given up on the attempt to establish linguistic descriptive model that espouses a perspective in which every human language has a slot . Concurring with claim that the so-called rhetorical devices are pervasive phenomena and not literary-specific , the present paper aspires to voice the claim that rhetorical devices not only ubiquitous in all levels of a particular language but also a universal linguistic phenomena. Using illustrations from Arabic and Englishthe paper intend to provide data-supported evidence that human beings are universally using similar rhetorical, albeit given different appellations.

Keywords: language, rhetoric, syntax, stylistics

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Authors: Mobina Sahraee Juybari

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There are around 300 languages spoken in Australia, and more than one-fifth of the population speaks a language other than English at home. The presence of international students in schools raises this number still further. Although the multilingual and multicultural status of Australia has been acknowledged by the government in education policy, the strong focus on English in institutional settings threatens the maintenance and learning of other languages. This is particularly true of universities’ language provisions. To cope with the financial impact of Covid-19, the government has cut funding for a number of Asian languages, such as Indonesian, Japanese and Chinese. This issue threats the maintenance of other languages in Australia and leaves students unprepared for the future job market. By taking account of the current reality of Australia’s diverse cultural and lingual makeup, this research intends to uncover the positioning of languages by having a historical look at Australia’s language policy and examining the value of languages and the probable impact of Covid-19 on the place of languages taught in Australian universities. A qualitative study will be adopted with language program tutors and course coordinators, with semi-structured interviews and government language policy analysis. This research hopes to provide insights into both the maintenance and learning of international language programs in tertiary language education in Australia and more widely.

Keywords: Australia, COVID-19, higher education sector, language maintenance, language and culture diversity

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Authors: Beatriz Botella-Gil, Patricio Martínez-Barco, Lea Canales

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The Internet and ICT are an integral element of and omnipresent in our daily lives. Technologies have changed the way we see the world and relate to it. The number of companies in the ICT sector is increasing every year, and there has also been an increase in the work that occurs online, from sending e-mails to the way companies promote themselves. In social life, ICT’s have gained momentum. Social networks are useful for keeping in contact with family or friends that live far away. This change in how we manage our relationships using electronic devices and social media has been experienced differently depending on the age of the person. According to currently available data, people are increasingly connected to social media and other forms of online communication. Therefore, it is no surprise that violent content has also made its way to digital media. One of the important reasons for this is the anonymity provided by social media, which causes a sense of impunity in the victim. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find derogatory comments, attacking a person’s physical appearance, hobbies, or beliefs. This is why it is necessary to develop artificial intelligence tools that allow us to keep track of violent comments that relate to violent events so that this type of violent online behavior can be deterred. The objective of our research is to create a guide for detecting and recording violent messages. Our annotation guide begins with a study on the problem of violent messages. First, we consider the characteristics that a message should contain for it to be categorized as violent. Second, the possibility of establishing different levels of aggressiveness. To download the corpus, we chose the social network Twitter for its ease of obtaining free messages. We chose two recent, highly visible violent cases that occurred in Spain. Both of them experienced a high degree of social media coverage and user comments. Our corpus has a total of 633 messages, manually tagged, according to the characteristics we considered important, such as, for example, the verbs used, the presence of exclamations or insults, and the presence of negations. We consider it necessary to create wordlists that are present in violent messages as indicators of violence, such as lists of negative verbs, insults, negative phrases. As a final step, we will use automatic learning systems to check the data obtained and the effectiveness of our guide.

Keywords: human language technologies, language modelling, offensive language detection, violent online content

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Authors: Zi Yan

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The pedagogical value of self-assessment is widely recognized. However, identifying effective methods to help students develop productive SA practices poses a significant challenge. Since most students do not acquire self-assessment skills intuitively, they need instruction and guidance. This study is a randomized controlled trial aiming to test the effect of online self-assessment diaries on students’ achievement scores compared to a control group. Two groups of secondary school students (N=59), recruited through convenience sampling, participated in the study. The two groups were randomly designated to one of two conditions: control (n = 31) and online self-assessment diary (n = 28). The participants completed a curriculum-specific pre-test and a baseline survey on the first week of the 10-week study, as well as completed a post-test and survey by the tenth week. The results showed that the SA diary intervention had a significantly positive effect on post-intervention language learning scores after controlling for baseline scores. The findings highlight the potential of self-assessment to enhance educational outcomes, emphasizing its significant implications for educational policies that promote the integration of SA strategies into pedagogical practices.

Keywords: self-assessment, online diary, academic achievement, experimenal study

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Authors: Marina Vicario, Amadeo Argüelles, Pilar Gómez, Carlos Hernández

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In this paper, the Computer Research Network of the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico proposes a paradigmatic model for the inference of cognitive patterns in digital learning systems. This model leads to metadata architecture useful for analysis and prediction in online learning systems; especially on MOOc's architectures. The model is in the design phase and expects to be tested through an institutional of courses project which is going to develop for the MOOc.

Keywords: cognitive footprints, learning analytics, predictive learning, digital learning, educational computing, educational informatics

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Authors: Luz Janeth Ospina M.

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The fourth industrial revolution is changing the role of education substantially and, therefore, the role of instructors and learners at all levels. Education 4.0 is an imminent response to the needs of a globalized world where humans and technology are being aligned to enable endless possibilities, among them the need for students, as digital natives, to communicate effectively in at least one language besides their mother tongue, and also the requirement of developing theirs. This is an exploratory study in which a control group (N = 21), all of the students of Spanish as a foreign language at the university level, after taking a Spanish class, responded to an online questionnaire about the engagement, atmosphere, and environment in which their course was delivered. These aspects considered in the survey were relative to the instructor’s teaching style, including: (a) active, hands-on learning; (b) flexibility for in-class activities, easily switching between small group work, individual work, and whole-class discussion; and (c) integrating technology into the classroom. Strongly believing in these principles, the instructor deliberately taught the course in a SCALE-UP room, as it could facilitate such a positive and encouraging learning environment. These aspects are trends related to Education 4.0 and have become integral to the instructor’s pedagogical stance that calls for a constructive-affective role, instead of a transmissive one. As expected, with a learning environment that (a) fosters student engagement and (b) improves student outcomes, the subjects were highly engaged, which was partially due to the learning environment. An overwhelming majority (all but one) of students agreed or strongly agreed that the atmosphere and the environment were ideal. Outcomes of this study are relevant and indicate that it is about time for teachers to build up a meaningful correlation between humans and technology. We should see the trends of Education 4.0 not as a threat but as practices that should be in the hands of critical and creative instructors whose pedagogical stance responds to the needs of the learners in the 21st century.

Keywords: active learning, education 4.0, higher education, pedagogical stance

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Authors: Cynthia Adlerstein-Grimberg, Andrea Bralic-Echeverría

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An extensive and controversial research debate discusses pedagogical documentation (PD) within early childhood education (ECE) as integral to ECE teachers' professional development. The literature converges in acknowledging that ICT integration in PD can be fundamental for children's and teachers' collaborative learning by making their processes visible and open to reflection. Controversial issues about PD emerge around ICT integration and the use of multimedia applications and platforms, displacing the physical experience involved in this pedagogical practice. Authors argue that online platforms make PD become a passive device to demonstrate accountability and performance. Furthermore, ICT integration would make educators inform children and families of pedagogical processes, positioning them more as consumers instead of involving them in collective thinking and pedagogical decision-making. This article analyses how pedagogical documentation mediated by a multimedia application (MAFApp) allows for the positive strengthening of an ECE pedagogical online community that thinks collectively about learning environments. In doing so, the paper shows how ICT integration supports ECE teachers' collective online thinking, enabling them to move from the controversial version of online PD, where they only act as informers of children's learning and assume a voyeuristic perspective, towards a collective online thinking that builds professional development and supports pedagogical decision-making about learning environments. This article answers How ECE teachers' pedagogical documentation evolves with ICT integration using the MAFApp multimedia application in a national ECE online community. From a posthumanist stance, this paper draws on an 18-month collaborative ethnographic immersion in Chile's unique public ECE online PD community. It develops a unique case study of an online ECE pedagogical community mediated by a multimedia application called MAFApp. This ECE online community includes 32 Chilean public kindergartens, 45 ECE teachers, and 72 assistants, who produced 534 pedagogical documentation. Fieldwork included 35 in-depth interviews, 13 discussion groups, and the constant comparison method for the PD coding. Findings show ICT integration in PD builds collective online thinking that evolves through four moments of growing complexity: 1) teachernalism of built environments, 2) onlookerism of children's anecdotes in learning environments; 3) storytelling of children's place-making, and 4) empowering pedagogies for co-creating learning environments. ICT integration through the MAFApp multimedia application enabled ECE teachers to build collective online thinking, making pedagogies of place visible and engaging children in co-constructing learning environments. This online PD is a continuous professional learning space for ECE teachers, empowering pedagogies of place. In conclusion, ICT integration into PD progressively empowers pedagogies of place in Chilean public ECE. Strengthening collective online thinking using the MAFApp multimedia application sharply contrasts with some recent PD research findings. ICT integration to PD enabled strong collective online thinking. Doing so makes PD operate as a place of professional development, pedagogical reflective encounters, and experimentation while inhabiting their own learning environments with children.

Keywords: early childhood education, ICT integration, multimedia application, online collective thinking, pedagogical documentation, professional development

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Authors: Maureen Lilian Klos

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In this paper, the notion of autonomy in language teaching and learning is explored with a view to designing particular subject-specific academic literacy at higher education level, for mostly English second or third language learners at the Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. These courses that are contextualized in subject-specific fields studied by students in Arts, Education and Social Science Faculties aim to facilitate learners in the manipulation of cognitively demanding academic texts. However, classroom contact time for these courses is limited to one ninety sessions per week. Thus, learners need to be autonomously responsible for developing their own skills when manipulating and negotiating appropriate academic textual conventions. Thus, a model was designed to allow for gradual learner independence in language learning skills. Learners experience of the model was investigated using the Phenomenological Research Approach. Data in the form of individual written reflections and transcripts of unstructured group interviews were analyzed for themes and sub-themes. These findings are discussed in the article with a view to addressing the practical concerns of the learners in this case study.

Keywords: academic literacies, autonomy, language learning and teaching, subject-specific language

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Authors: Deborah Asibu Abu

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Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is one of the most important ingredients in teaching and learning yet it does not come by chance; it involves necessary strategies appropriate to achieve a common goal. In learning, the psychological attention of the student is very important. This helps them to imagine whatever is being taught for a simple understanding, nonetheless, many students will be able to imagine how the environment is in social studies or how the bones or plant is, in integrated Science but will find it difficult to imagine what subject-verb agreement or phrases and clauses actually looks like until they are motivated or with the use of TLM’s to stir their interest to learn and forever remember. For students to be able to receive the motivation they need, there must be an effective relationship between the teacher and the student as well as the use of strategies for effectual execution of achievable goals. Every teacher must understand the importance of motivation by applying various kinds of teaching methodology, especially in the English Language as a subject. Hence this paper suggests some important factors necessary for student’s motivation in teaching and learning English Language, it handles what teaching method is, types of motivation, educational curriculum structure of many, what suitable teaching methods can achieve, appropriate teachers’ disposition, learning environment as tool for motivation and some other domestic factors that can also influence student motivation.

Keywords: english language, teacher-student relationship, curriculum structure, learning environment

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Authors: Zhepeng Rui, Zhenyu Gu, Caitilin de Bérigny

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In the current study, we designed an interactive meditation and brain painting application to cultivate users’ creativity, promote meditation, reduce stress, and improve cognition while attempting to learn a foreign language. User tests and data analyses were conducted on 42 male and 42 female participants to better understand sex-associated psychological and aesthetic differences. Our method utilized brain-computer interfaces to import meditation and attention data to create artwork in meditation-based applications. Female participants showed statistically significantly different language learning outcomes following three meditation paradigms. The art style of brain painting helped females with language memory. Our results suggest that the most ideal methods for promoting memory attention were meditation methods and brain painting exercises contributing to language learning, memory concentration promotion, and foreign word memorization. We conclude that a short period of meditation practice can help in learning a foreign language. These findings provide new insights into meditation, creative language education, brain-computer interface, and human-computer interactions.

Keywords: brain-computer interface, creative thinking, meditation, mental health

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Authors: Esperanza C. Santos

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Japanese Language was traditionally considered as a means of imparting culture and training aesthetic experience in students and therefore as something beyond the practical aims of language teaching and learning. Due to the complexity of foreign languages, lots of language learners and teachers shared deep reservations about the potentials of foreign language in enhancing the communication skills of the students. In spite of the arguments against the use of Foreign Language (Nihon-go) in the classroom, the researcher strongly support the use of Nihon-go in teaching communication skills as the researcher believes that Nihon-go is a valuable resource to be exploited in the classroom in order to help the students explore the language in an interesting and challenging way. The focus of this research is to find out the relationship between the preferences, opinions, and perceptions with the communication skills. This study also identifies the significance of the relationship between preferences, opinions and perceptions and communications skills in the activities employed in Foreign language (Nihon-go) among the junior and senior students in Foreign Language 2 at the Imus Institute, Imus Cavite during the academic year 2013-2014. The results of the study are expected to encourage further studies that particularly focused on the communication skills as brought about by the identified factors namely: preferences, opinions, and perceptions on the benefits factor namely the language acquisition; access to Japanese culture and students' interpretative ability. Therefore, this research is in its quest for the issues and concerns on how to effectively teach different learning activities in a Nihon-go class.

Keywords: preferences, opinions, perceptions, language acquisition

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Authors: Chen Wang, Gerard Rowe

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The number of undergraduate engineering students enrolled in university has been increasing rapidly recently, leading to challenges associated with increased student-instructor ratios and increased diversity in academic preparedness of the entrants. An increased student-instructor ratio makes the interaction between teachers and students more difficult, with the resulting student ‘anonymity’ known to be a risk to academic success. With increasing student numbers, there is also an increasing diversity in the academic preparedness of the students at entry to university. Conceptual understanding of the entrants has been quantified via diagnostic testing, with the results for the first-year course in electrical engineering showing significant conceptual misunderstandings amongst the entry cohort. The solution is clearly multi-faceted, but part of the solution likely involves greater demands being placed on students to be masters of their own learning. In consequence, it is highly desirable that instructors help students to develop better self-regulated learning skills. A self-regulated learner is one who is capable of setting up their own learning goals, monitoring their study processes, adopting and adjusting learning strategies, and reflecting on their own study achievements. The methods by which instructors might cultivate students’ self-regulated learning abilities is receiving increasing attention from instructors and researchers. The aim of this study was to help students understand fully their self-regulated learning skill levels and provide targeted instructions to help them improve particular learning abilities in order to meet the curriculum requirements. As a survey tool, this research applied the questionnaire ‘Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire’ (MSLQ) to collect first year engineering student’s self-reported data of their cognitive abilities, motivational orientations and learning strategies. MSLQ is a widely-used questionnaire for assessment of university student’s self-regulated learning skills. The questionnaire was offered online as a part of the online-scaffolding-learning tools to develop student understanding of self-regulated learning theories and learning strategies. The online tools, which have been under development since 2015, are designed to help first-year students understand their self-regulated learning skill levels by providing prompt feedback after they complete the questionnaire. In addition, the online tool also supplies corresponding learning strategies to students if they want to improve specific learning skills. A total of 866 first year engineering students who enrolled in the first-year electrical engineering course were invited to participate in this research project. By the end of the course 857 students responded and 738 of their questionnaires were considered as valid questionnaires. Analysis of these surveys showed that 66% of the students thought the online-scaffolding-learning tools helped significantly to improve their self-regulated learning abilities. It was particularly pleasing that 16.4% of the respondents thought the online-scaffolding-learning tools were extremely effective. A current thrust of our research is to investigate the relationships between students’ self-regulated learning abilities and their academic performance. Our results are being used by the course instructors as they revise the curriculum and pedagogy for this fundamental first-year engineering course, but the general principles we have identified are applicable to most first-year STEM courses.

Keywords: academic preparedness, online-scaffolding-learning tool, self-regulated learning, STEM education

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Authors: Bola M. Tunde-Awe

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The study investigated the influence of teacher’s non-verbal communication on secondary school students’ learning outcomes in English language. The study was a survey research. Participants were three hundred Senior Secondary School II students randomly selected from ten schools in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire containing twenty items on a four-point Likert scale which measured teacher’s use of three types of non-verbal communication modes: body movement, eye contact and spatial distance. The data collected was analysed using simple percentage. Findings revealed that teacher’s use of these non-verbal communication modes enhanced learners’ learning outcomes in English language: a total of 271 (90.33%) participants affirmed that teacher’s body language influenced their learning of English; 224 (74.66%) maintained the same stand for eye contact; while 202 (67.33%) affirmed that teacher’s spatial distance had positive influence. Consequent upon these findings, it was recommended that teachers of English language should constantly utilize non-verbal communication in their instructional delivery. Also, non-verbal communication modes should be included in teacher education programme to equip prospective pre-service teachers with the art of non-verbal communication.

Keywords: non-verbal communication, body language, eye contact, spatial distance, learning outcomes

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Authors: Hela Fathallah

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With 6,500 spoken languages all over the world but 80 percent of online content available only in 10 languages – English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, and Korean – language represents a barrier to the universal access to knowledge, information and services that the internet wants to provide. Translation and its related fields of localization, interpreting, globalization, and internationalization, remove that barrier for billions of people worldwide, unlocking new markets for technology companies, mobile device makers, service providers and language vendors as well. This paper gathers different surveys conducted in different regions of the world that demonstrate a growing demand for consumption of web content with distinctive values and in languages others than the aforementioned ones. It also adds new insights to the contribution of translation in languages preservation. The idea that English is the language of internet and that, in a globalized world, everyone should learn English to cope with new technologies is no longer true. This idea has reached its limits. It collides with cultural diversity and differences around the world and generates an accelerated rate of languages extinction. Studies prove that internet exacerbates this rate and web giants such as Facebook or Google are, today, facing the impact of such a misconception of globalization. For internet and dot-com companies, localization is the solution; they are spending a significant amount of time to understand what people want and to figure out how to provide it. They are committed to making their content accessible, if not in all the languages spoken today, at least in most of them, and to adapting it to most cultures. Technology has broken down the barriers of time and space, and it will break down the language barrier as well by undertaking a process of translation and localization and through a new definition of globalization that takes into consideration these two processes.

Keywords: globalization, internet, localization, translation

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Authors: Lee Bih Ni, Kiu Su Na

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This paper discusses the Chinese Language Teaching as a Second Language by focusing on Immersion Teaching. Researchers used narrative literature review to describe the current states of both art and science in focused areas of inquiry. Immersion teaching comes with a standard that teachers must reliably meet. Chinese language-immersion instruction consists of language and content lessons, including functional usage of the language, academic language, authentic language, and correct Chinese sociocultural language. Researchers used narrative literature reviews to build a scientific knowledge base. Researchers collected all the important points of discussion, and put them here with reference to the specific field where this paper is originally based on. The findings show that Chinese Language in immersion teaching is not like standard foreign language classroom; immersion setting provides more opportunities to teach students colloquial language than academic. Immersion techniques also introduce a language’s cultural and social contexts in a meaningful and memorable way. It is particularly important that immersion teachers connect classwork with real-life experiences. Immersion also includes more elements of discovery and inquiry based learning than do other kinds of instructional practices. Students are always and consistently interpreted the conclusions and context clues.

Keywords: a second language, Chinese language teaching, immersion teaching, instructional strategies

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Authors: Silvia C. Ambag, Racidon P. Bernarte, Jacquelyn B. Buccahi, Jessica R. Lacaron, Charlyn L. Mangulabnan

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This study aimed to answer the query, “What is the impact of Students Online Evaluation on PUP Faculty’s Performance?” The problem of the study was resolve through the objective of knowing the perceived impact of students’ online evaluation on PUP faculty’s performance. The objectives were carried through the application of quantitative research design and by conducting survey research method. The researchers utilized primary and secondary data. Primary data was gathered from the self-administered survey and secondary data was collected from the books, articles on both print-out and online materials and also other theses related study. Findings revealed that PUP faculty in general stated that students’ online evaluation made a highly positive impact on their performance based on their ‘Knowledge of Subject’ and ‘Teaching for Independent Learning’, giving a highest mean of 3.62 and 3.60 respectively., followed by the faculty’s performance which gained an overall means of 3.55 and 3.53 are based on their ‘Commitment’ and ‘Management of Learning’. From the findings, the researchers concluded that Students’ online evaluation made a ‘Highly Positive’ impact on PUP faculty’s performance based on all Four (4) areas. Furthermore, the study’s findings reveal that PUP faculty encountered many problems regarding the students’ online evaluation; the impact of the Students’ Online Evaluation is significant when it comes to the employment status of the faculty; and most of the PUP faculty recommends reviewing the PUP Online Survey for Faculty Evaluation for improvement. Hence, the researchers recommend the PUP Administration to revisit and revise the PUP Online Survey for Faculty Evaluation, specifically review the questions and make a set of questions that will be appropriate to the discipline or field of the faculty. Also, the administration should fully orient the students about the importance, purpose and impact of online faculty evaluation. And lastly, the researchers suggest the PUP Faculty to continue their positive performance and continue on being cooperative with the administrations’ purpose of addressing the students’ concerns and for the students, the researchers urged them to take the online faculty evaluation honestly and objectively.

Keywords: on-line Evaluation, faculty, performance, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)

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Authors: Abdul Rahman Chamseddine

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Tawfiq al-Hakim remains one of the most prominent playwrights in his native in Egypt, and in the broader Arab world. His works, at the time of their release, drew international attention and acclaim. His first 1933 masterpiece Ahl al-Kahf (The People of the Cave) especially, garnered fame and recognition in both Europe and the Arab world. Borrowing its title from the Qur’anic Sura, al-Hakim’s play relays the untold story of the life of those 'three saints' after they wake up from their prolonged sleep. The playwright’s selection of topics upon which to base his works displays a deep appreciation of Arabic and Islamic heritage. Al-Hakim was clearly influenced by Islam, to such a degree that he wrote the biography of the Prophet Muhammad in 1936 very early in his career. Knowing that Al-Hakim was preceded by many poets and creative writers in writing the Prophet Muhammad’s biography. Notably like Al-Barudi, Ahmad Shawqi, Haykal, Al-‘Aqqad, and Taha Husayn who have had their own ways in expressing their views of the Prophet Muhammad. The attempt to understand the concern of all those renaissance men and others in the person of the Prophet would be indispensable in this study. This project will examine the reasons behind al-Hakim’s choice to draw upon these particular texts, embedded as they are in the context of Arabic and Islamic heritage, and how the use of traditional texts serves his contemporary goals. The project will also analyze the image of Islam in al-Hakim’s imagination. Elsewhere, he envisions letters or conversations between God and himself, which offers a window into understanding the powerful impact of the Divine on Tawfiq al-Hakim, one that informs his literature and merits further scholarly attention. His works occupying a major rank in Arabic literature, does not reveal Al-Hakim solely but the unquestioned assumptions operative in the life of his community, its mental make-up and its attitudes. Furthermore, studying the reception of works that touch on sensitive issues, like writing a letter to God, in Al-Hakim’s historical context would be of a great significance in the process of comprehending the mentality of the Muslim community at that time.

Keywords: Arabic language, Arabic literature, Arabic theology, modern Arabic literature

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Authors: Budoor Al Abid

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Educational systems are increasingly provided as open online services, providing guidance and support for individual learners. To adapt the learning systems, a proper evaluation must be made. This paper builds the evaluation model Fuzzy C Means Adaptive System (FCMAS) based on data mining techniques to assess the difficulty of the questions. The following steps are implemented; first using a dataset from an online international learning system called (slepemapy.cz) the dataset contains over 1300000 records with 9 features for students, questions and answers information with feedback evaluation. Next, a normalization process as preprocessing step was applied. Then FCM clustering algorithms are used to adaptive the difficulty of the questions. The result is three cluster labeled data depending on the higher Wight (easy, Intermediate, difficult). The FCM algorithm gives a label to all the questions one by one. Then Random Forest (RF) Classifier model is constructed on the clustered dataset uses 70% of the dataset for training and 30% for testing; the result of the model is a 99.9% accuracy rate. This approach improves the Adaptive E-learning system because it depends on the student behavior and gives accurate results in the evaluation process more than the evaluation system that depends on feedback only.

Keywords: machine learning, adaptive, fuzzy logic, data mining

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Authors: Vishal D. Pandya

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A great deal of perceptible change has been taking place in the way our institutions of higher learning are being managed in India today. It is believed that managers, whose intuition proves to be accurate, often tend to be the most successful, and this is what makes them almost like entrepreneurs. A certain entrepreneurial spirit is what is expected and requires a degree of insight of the manager to be successful depending upon the situational and more importantly, the heterogeneity as well as the socio-cultural aspect. Teachers in Higher Education have to play multiple roles to make sure that the Learning-Teaching process becomes effective in the real sense of the term. This paper makes an effort to take a close look at that, especially in the context of the management of English language teaching in Higher Education and, therefore, focuses on the management of English language teaching in higher education by understanding target situation analyses at the socio-cultural level.

Keywords: management, language teaching, English language teaching, higher education

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Authors: Amani Jaber-Awida

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This study examines two bilingual phenomena in the narratives of Arabic Hebrew and Hebrew-English bilingual adults in Israel: CO memories and code-switching (CS). The study examined these phenomena in the context of autobiographical memory, using a cue word technique. Student experimenters held two sessions in the homes of the participants. In separate language sessions, the participant was asked to look first at each of 16 cue words and then to state a concrete memory. After stating the memory, participants reported whether their memories were in the same language of the experiment session or different. Memories were classified as ‘Crossovers’ (CO) or ‘Same Language’ (SL) according to participants' self-reports. Participants were also required to elaborate about the setting, interlocutors and other languages involved in the specific memory. Beyond replicating the procedure of cuing technique, one memory from a specific lifespan period was chosen per participant, and the participant was required to provide further details about it. For the more detailed memories, CS count was conducted. Both bilingual groups confirmed the Reminiscence Bump phenomenon, retrieving more memories in the 10-30 age period. CO memories prevailed in second language sessions (L2). Same language memories were more abundant in first language sessions (L1). Higher CS frequency was found in L2 sessions. Finally, as predicted, 'individual' CS was prevalent in L2 sessions, but 'community-based' CS was not higher in L1 sessions. The two bilingual measures in this study, crossovers, and CS came from different research traditions, the former from an experimental paradigm in the psychology of autobiographical memory based on self-reported judgments, the latter a behavioral measure from linguistics. This merger of approaches offers new insight into the field of bilingual autobiographical memory. In addition, the study attempted to shed light on the investigation of motivations for CS, beginning with Walters’ SPPL Model and concluding with a distinction between ‘community-based’ and individual motivations.

Keywords: bilinguals, code-switching, crossover memories, narratives

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Authors: Pia Kastl

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By combining face-to-face sessions with digital selflearning units, the learning process can be enhanced and learning success improved. Potentials of blended learning are the flexibility and possibility to get in touch with lecturers and fellow students face-toface. It also offers the opportunity to individualize and self-regulate the learning process. Aim of this article is to analyse how different learning environments affect students’ learning behavior and how digital tools can be used effectively. The analysis also considers the extent to which the field of study affects the students’ preferences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students from different disciplines at two German universities (N= 60). The questions addressed satisfaction and perception of online, faceto-face and blended learning courses. In addition, suggestions for improving learning experience and the use of digital tools in the different learning environments were surveyed. The results show that being present on campus has a positive impact on learning success and online teaching facilitates flexible learning. Blended learning can combine the respective benefits, although one challenge is to keep the time investment within reasonable limits. The use of digital tools differs depending on the subject. Medical students are willing to use digital tools to improve their learning success and voluntarily invest more time. Students of the humanities and social sciences, on the other hand, are reluctant to invest additional time. They do not see extra study material as an additional benefit their learning success. This study illustrates how these heterogenous demands on learning environments can be met. In addition, potential for improvement will be identified in order to foster both learning process and learning success. Learning environments can be meaningfully enriched with digital elements to address student diversity in higher education.

Keywords: blended learning, higher education, diversity, learning styles

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Authors: Radesh Palakurthi

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The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of experiential learning on learning outcomes in hospitality education. This paper presents the results of an online survey of students from the U.S. studying abroad and their self-reported change in learning outcomes as assessed using the Core Competencies Model for the Hospitality Industry developed by Employment and Training Development Office of the U.S. Department of Labor. The impact of student learning styles on learning outcomes is also evaluated in this study. Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory Model was used to assess students’ learning style. The results show that students reported significant improvements in their learning outcomes because of engaging in study abroad experiential learning programs. The learning styles of the students had significant effect on one of core learning outcomes- personal effectiveness.

Keywords: hospitality competencies, hospitality education, Kolb’s learning style inventory, learning outcomes, study abroad

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Authors: Mi̇hri̇ban Müge Aras

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The present study aims to investigate the learner autonomy usage of prep school students. This research focuses on the prep school students' autonomy habits according to their self-regulated studies, age and duration of learning English. The research also analyzes whether prep school students have strong autonomy to learn the English language or depend on teachers and English classes only. The participants of the study consisted of 32 prep school students. The "Likert- type of questionnaire " was adopted by the researcher from the survey of Dede (2017). The scale was a one-dimensional 4-Likert type, which has the options of 1=never, 2= sometimes, 3=often, and 4=always. There are 19 questions in the questionnaire to understand the autonomy of students when they try to learn English. Descriptive statistics and OneANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that there is no significant correlation between their ages and their duration of learning English according to their autonomy studies for English.

Keywords: learner autonomy, self-regulated learning, independent learning, English language learning, prep school students

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Authors: Catherine Mangan, Beth Anderson

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There has been a significant drive to use online or hybrid learning in Higher Education (HE) over recent years. HEs with a virtual presence offer their communities a range of benefits, including the potential for greater inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration; more flexible learning packages; and more engaging, dynamic content. Institutions can also experience significant challenges when seeking to extend learning spaces in this way, as can learners themselves. For example, staff members’ and learners’ digital literacy varies (as do their perceptions of technologies in use), and there can be confusion about optimal approaches to implementation. Furthermore, the speed with which HE institutions have needed to shift to fully online or hybrid models, owing to the COVID19 pandemic, has highlighted the significant barriers to successful implementation. HE environments have been shown to predict a range of organisational, academic, and experiential outcomes, both positive and negative. Much research has focused on the social aspect of virtual platforms, as well as the nature and effectiveness of the technologies themselves. There remains, however, a relative paucity of synthesised knowledge on the psychology of learners’ relationships with their institutions; specifically, how individual difference and interpersonal factors predict students’ ability and willingness to engage with novel virtual learning spaces. Accordingly, extending learning spaces remains challenging for institutions, and wholly remote courses, in particular, can experience high attrition rates. Focusing on the last five years, this pragmatic review summarises evidence from the psychological and pedagogical literature. In particular, the review highlights the importance of addressing the psychological and relational complexities of students’ shift from offline to online engagement. In doing so, it identifies considerations for HE institutions looking to deliver in this way.

Keywords: higher education, individual differences, interpersonal relationships, online learning, virtual environment

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Authors: Taghreed Alghamdi, Wendy Hall, David Millard

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently gained widespread interest in the academic world, starting a wide range of discussion of a number of issues. One of these issues, using MOOCs in teaching and learning in the higher education by integrating MOOCs’ contents with traditional face-to-face activities in blended learning format, is called blended MOOCs (bMOOCs) and is intended not to replace traditional learning but to enhance students learning. Most research on MOOCs has focused on students’ perception and institutional threats whereas there is a lack of published research on academics’ experiences and practices. Thus, the first aim of the study is to develop a classification of blended MOOCs models by conducting a systematic literature review, classifying 19 different case studies, and identifying the broad types of bMOOCs models namely: Supplementary Model and Integrated Model. Thus, the analyses phase will emphasize on these different types of bMOOCs models in terms of adopting MOOCs by lecturers. The second aim of the study is to improve the understanding of lecturers’ acceptance of bMOOCs by investigate the factors that influence academics’ acceptance of using MOOCs in traditional learning by distributing an online survey to lecturers who participate in MOOCs platforms. These factors can help institutions to encourage their lecturers to integrate MOOCs with their traditional courses in universities.

Keywords: acceptance, blended learning, blended MOOCs, higher education, lecturers, MOOCs, professors

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Authors: Sirajo Muhammad Sokoto

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The Commander of the Faithful, Muhammad Bello, is considered one of the most distinguished scholars and poetic geniuses who is famous for reciting poetry in the classical vertical style. He is also represented by pre-Islamic poets such as Imru’ al-Qays and Alqamah and among the Islamists such as Hassan bin Thabit, Amr bin Abi Rabi’ah, and others. The poet drew from the seas of the Arabic language and its styles at the hands of His father, Sheikh Othman Bin Fodio, and his uncle, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Fodio, are both things that made Muhammad Bello conversant with the Arabic language until he was able to write poetry in a beautiful format and good style. The Commander of the Faithful, Muhammad Bello, did not deviate from what the Arabs know of poetic elements, such as taking into account its meanings and music; Muhammadu Bello has used every Bahr of prosody and its technicals in many of his poems. This article prepares the reader for the efforts made by the poet Muhammad Bello in composing poems on poetic seas, taking into account musical tones for different purposes according to his desire. The article will also discuss the poet’s talent, skill, and eloquence.

Keywords: music, Muhammad Bello, poetry, performances

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Authors: Nouzha Yasmina Soulimane-Benhabib

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Language is a medium of communication and a means of expression that is why today the learning of foreign languages especially the English language has become a basic necessity for every student who is ambitious. It is known that culture and language are inseparable and complementary, however, in the process of teaching a foreign language, teachers used to focus mainly on preparing adequate syllabi for ESP students, yet, some parameters should be considered. For instance; the culture of the target language may play an important role since students attitudes towards a foreign language enhance their learning or vice versa. The aim of this study is to analyse how culture could influence the teaching of a foreign language, we have taken the example of the English language as it is considered as the second foreign language in Algeria after French. The study is conducted at the Preparatory School of Sciences and Techniques, Tlemcen where twenty-five students participated in this research. The reasons behind learning the English language are various, and since English is the most widely-spoken language in the world, it is the language of research and education and it is used in many other fields, we have to take into consideration one important factor which is the social distance between the culture of the Algerian learner and the culture of the target language, this gap may lead to a culture shock. Two steps are followed in this research: The first one is to collect data from those students who are studying at the Preparatory School under the form of questionnaire and an interview is submitted to six of them in order to reinforce our research and get effective and precise results, and the second step is to analyse these data taking into consideration the diversity of the learners within this institution. The results obtained show that learners’ attitudes towards the English community and culture are mixed and it may influence their curiosity and attention to learn. Despite of big variance between Algerian and European cultures, some of the students focused mainly on the benefits of the English language since they need it in their studies, research and a future carrier, however, the others manifest their reluctance towards this language and this is mainly due to the profound impact of the English culture which is different from the Algerian one.

Keywords: Algeria, culture, English, impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 385