English

An educational column by

The importance of critical thinking and critical reading skills in higher education and language courses is established and frequently explored, particularly with the shift from traditional to more contemporary teaching methods. The purpose of this study is to elaborate on the implementation of teaching practices with focus on development of critical reading and critical thinking. Both critical reading and critical thinking are considered to be essential parts of the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and EAP (English for Academic Purposes) syllabi, including English language courses which target the students who are highly proficient in English. This study attempts to summarize and elaborate on the importance of critical reading and critical thinking skills and to provide further details regarding introducing and teaching these skills through various practices in the context of Advanced English / English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses. In addition, the study will focus on students’ perceptions of their critical thinking and critical reading competencies, compared and contrasted with students’ performance and results when introducing activities and tasks which require critical reading and critical thinking. The research methodology is qualitative and includes a 5-point Likert scale survey targeting the student population in EAP courses. Finally, the study will suggest teaching practices and activities which can be used to foster critical reading and critical thinking skills in the context of EAP courses.

A dissertation represents a key academic work produced by doctoral students as a requirement for graduation and the attainment of a doctoral degree. Consequently, doctoral candidates are expected to demonstrate strong and precise dissertation writing skills. This study aims to (1) analyze the rhetorical structures employed in each section of dissertations authored by doctoral students in the Doctoral Program in Language Education, and (2) compare these rhetorical structures with established academic writing conventions. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, adopting the textual organization framework of the Academic Phrasebank by Morley (2014) as the primary guide, supplemented by Santos’ (1996) framework for abstract structure. Data collection includes both qualitative and quantitative components. The data analysis is conducted using AntConc 4.0.11, developed by Laurence Anthony from Waseda University, with an emphasis on calculating the frequency of words, phrases, collocations, concordances, and specific expressions within the dissertations. The findings reveal distinctive rhetorical patterns in the abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion sections of the dissertations produced by doctoral students within the field of Language Education.

The development of English as a universal language led to the emergence of a new field in English language teaching which is called English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Moreover, English is recently considered as an international language, and with advancements in technology, accordingly, there is a widespread growth in demand for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses fluctuating in teaching length and mode. The present study, thus, attempts to consider the EAP Learners' Perceptions towards the use of tasks taught in universities as EAP courses for students and what English skills and abilities are required from them on the job.

The purpose of this article is to provide a resource for school counselors to recognize key indicators of quality quantitative research and make informed decisions about incorporating scholarly works into school counseling practice and comprehensive program development. We describe quality indicators of quantitative research by walking readers through common sections of an article, including the literature review, method, results, and discussion sections, and considerations for critical, multicultural, and antiracist appraisal when reading quantitative research. We also address implications for school counseling practitioners, training programs, and students.

This paper reports on a study examining the attitudes and perceptions of a group of in-service teachers who are new or relatively new to facilitating self-directed learning (SDL) before and after they taught a course with an integrated SDL component. The study also investigates the impact on those teachers' attitudes of an orientation package designed to familiarise teachers with the concept of SDL and support them in promoting it to students of the course. The study took place in a university setting with teachers of English for Academic Purposes course with an integrated SDL component.

This article reports an empirical study that investigates academic language challenges faced by university students in an Outer Circle context with almost four decades of English-medium instruction (EMI) education . The study also examines the relationship between students’ reported language challenges and their perceived academic success in EMI courses, as well as their self-rated proficiency in English. Quantitative analyses on questionnaire data collected from 198 undergraduate students indicate that Bruneian students did not generally experience major language-related challenges in their EMI courses, although academic writing and speaking were at times problematic. Furthermore, language challenges were found to be significant predictors of students’ perceived academic success in EMI but their self-rated English proficiency was not, suggesting that students’ beliefs about their language abilities and competence were not applied to the academic context. Finally, some implications in relation to early exposure to EMI education, and enhancing the provision of language support through English for academic purposes courses, are discussed.

The introduction of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) into the classroom has led to a number of challenges and opportunities for instructors across the field of education. Wikipedia, a collaborative encyclopedia, has proven to be one of the most controversial online platforms throughout academia, with many higher education instructors banning its use outright. Despite the prevailing negative attitude, there has been a recent shift in thought among some in the field regarding its utilization as a teaching tool in a number of applications. One popular use is as the centre of a writing project, most commonly the creation of a new article or the improvement of a pre-existing one.This paper outlines a case study conducted at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies in the autumn semester of 2019, in which first year international veterinarian medicine students wrote Wikipedia articles as part of a semester-long project in an English for academic purposes course in order to improve academic writing skills such as researching, analysing, summarizing, and editing. Analysis of two questionnaires and the students’ work suggest that despite some challenges, a Wikipedia article writing project can serve as an engaging, rewarding, and effective method to teach academic writing skills.

Syllabus design for general EAP writing courses: A cognitive approach

Being a language teacher means they are not only fluent in using the target language but also possess competence in the study of language. Hence, linguistic knowledge is one essential skill a language teacher needs to possess. Using a descriptive qualitative research design of the content analysis, this article aimed to investigate the linguistic competence of an English teacher and its implementation in the classroom. The recordings of online classroom sessions of an English for Academic Purposes course were observed. The teacher, as the main object of the study, was also interviewed to enrich understanding through open-ended questions. The collected audio-visual data was then analyzed and categorized based on the linguistic features employed by the teacher. While existing studies focus on the linguistic competence of pre-service teachers, the findings are inclined to negative results. Hence, by investigating the teaching practice of a teacher with 30 years of experience, the findings revealed the descriptions of linguistic features evident in the data and explained how those features helped the teacher in carrying out the teaching and learning session. Subsequently, it is recommended that English teachers increase their language awareness as well as linguistic competence so that they can perform better in meeting the students’ needs in acquiring and improving English language skills.

Using feedback comments to develop a rating scale for a written coursework assessment

In recent decades, three forms of practitioner research have emerged: Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Exploratory Practice. While Reflective Practice and Action Research focus on teachers-as-researchers, Exploratory Practice positions learners as co-researchers, alongside teachers, teacher educators, and others. This article adds to those which examine the notion of learners co-producing research by exploring the potential of multimodal methods for data generation and analysis; it does this by critically analysing posters produced by learners as they puzzled, explored, collaborated, and disseminated their developing understandings on a pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes course in the UK. Focusing particularly on these ‘sticky objects’, to which emotions and beliefs attach, I argue that learners, like teachers, can ask robust questions, engage in creative investigative practices, integrating research and pedagogy. I posit that learners can develop profound insights into their practice which contribute to theory-building more broadly. This ‘fully inclusive’ notion of co-produced research challenges traditional assumptions about who does what in research and pedagogy, indicating an ethical imperative for learners to be included as co-investigators contributing their understandings to developments in theory and practice.

<p>Les Systèmes d’Information (SI) se proposent comme des systèmes technologiques efficaces afin de libérer le potentiel des organisations à l’égard de l'intégration des processus d'affaires et de gestion. L’objectif de la présente recherche consiste à proposer un cadre conceptuel et théorique permettant de clarifier la relation entre la corruption et le processus d’adoption des SI dans un contexte organisationnel. Cette analyse propose un cadre de travail permettant d’étudier l’influence de la corruption sur le processus d’adoption et d’appropriation des SI, les facteurs en cause de détournement d’usage des SI, ainsi que les formes de détournement des usages des SI. Notre recherche gravite autour des pratiques corruptives des utilisateurs finaux dans un contexte organisationnel, et l’influence de ces pratiques sur le processus d’adoption des SI. Une discussion sur comment et dans quelle direction les pratiques de corruption influencent-elles le processus d’adoption des SI au niveau des entreprises est proposée dans la section introductive. Dans cet esprit d’analyse, notre travail porte dans une deuxième section sur la revue de la littérature qui concerne successivement l’adoption des SI, le processus d’adoption des SI et la relation entre la corruption et l’usage de des SI puis, dans une troisième section, nous tentons de répondre à la question principale de notre recherche à savoir : Quels sont les facteurs en cause de détournement d’usage des SI au sein d’un contexte organisationnel et quelles sont les pratiques de corruption les plus fréquentes dans le processus d’adoption des SI ?</p>

This study attempted to analyze the various moves, move sequences, and evaluative expressions employed in the literature review section in graduate theses using genre-analytic system of moves. Results showed that rhetorical moves and patterns varied across disciplines. There were differences in the use of moves which were found to be influenced by the specific writing context and situation (academic discipline) to which the graduate students belonged: expectations of the audience (panel members; adviser, program director) and the researchers’ writing style. The data also showed that there were only few instances of definitely bounded evaluation paragraphs indicating the graduate students’ need for analytical and critical abilities to express their stance towards other writers’ papers. Keywords : Evaluative expressions, literature review, rhetorical moves, genre approach

This is a literature review for the year 2013 and contains information specifically related to suspended growth processes including activated sludge and sequencing batch reactors. This review is a subsection of the Treatment Systems section of the annual literature review. The review encompasses modeling, nutrient removal, system design and operation, oxygen transfer, and solids separation. A number of topics that have seen an increase in activity compared to recent past reviews. These include energy efficiency, new strains and methods for determining biodegradation kinetic parameters, fate and occurrence of hormones, endocrine disrupters and pharmaceuticals, which are referred to as microconstituents following current WEF terminology. Microconstituents as they relate to suspended growth reactors are covered in this review, while membrane bioreactors are reviewed in another section in this journal. Other subsections from the Treatment Systems section that might also be related to this section include: Wastewater Collection Systems; Biological Fixed Film Systems; and Modeling, Instrumentation, Automation, and Optimization of Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Many of the subsections in the Industrial Wastes, Hazardous Wastes, and Fate and Effects of Pollutants sections could also have some overlap with this section.