Investigating the Learners’ Communicative Skills in ESL Classes

The cultivation of interpersonal communicative skills represents one of the pivotal objectives within contemporary pedagogical paradigms. This research developed, tested, and evaluated three extracurricular education programs aimed at developing communicative action skills in Sunday school students against the landscape of integrated secular and religious education. The empirical base included 302 students aged 8 to 16 years (M = 11.80; SD = 2.41). They were distributed into age groups: 8–10 years (n = 104; M = 9.1; SD = 0.6), 11–13 years (n = 118; M = 12.0; SD = 0.8), and 14–16 years (n = 80; M = 15.0; SD = 0.8). The experiment also featured 74 Sunday school teachers (M = 41.2; SD = 7.1), of whom 13 were clergy (M = 42.5; SD = 6.8). The methodology involved questionnaires, observation, semi-structured interviews, content analysis of essays, and expert assessment of group interaction. Three extracurricular programs were implemented by age groups. They exploited project forms, role-playing games, and academic events, as well as such digital platforms as Moodle, Sferum, and Nextcloud. The participants demonstrated a high level of communicative actions, which increased from 14.8% to 31.7%. The proportion of students with poorly developed communicative skills decreased from 58.0% to 22.5%. The students also improved their speech activity and empathy. While clarifying the terminology related to communicative skills, competences, and actions, the authors developed a diagnostic system of criteria and indicators adapted to the conditions of extracurricular religious education. The programs can be realized in Sunday schools as a tool for the targeted formation of communicative skills.

'Native speaker' and 'mother tongue' are two symmetrical and converse notions. They seem to refer to the same reality from two opposite viewpoints. Native speakers, by definition, speak their mother tongue, and a mother tongue is the language of a native speaker, but, in spite of this correspondence, the implications and the history of these two designations are very different, and, for both expressions, part of the difficulty lies in the relation they have with the notion of literary language. In this lecture I shall discuss four points: native speaker; mother tongue; births and deaths of laguages; and literary usage. I shall look in particular at topics emerging in the context of Latin, Hebrew, and Italian. The paper was written from the perspective of someone who is prevalently a linguist but one who is also interested in the literary aspect of the questions he is discussing, who, in fact, believes that although the two approaches, the linguistic and the literary, are distinct, they can only gain from being linked to each other, and in some cases they inevitably suffer from being kept apart.

The article describes and analyses the main components and factors of communicative creativity. They include such factors as intellectual (social and emotional intelligence), purely creative (verbal creativity, social creativity and emotional creativity) and a number of regulatory factors (self-regulation and self-control, dialogical style of communication, motivation of affiliation, communication and organisational skills and role competence). Today, higher education institutions must ensure the formation and development of an intellectual, creative and proactive personality capable of living in fundamentally new conditions, realising themselves in life, being successful and contributing to the progress of society. A modern specialist needs to have a culture of Ukrainian-language communication, skills of working with information for professional growth, i.e. to have communicative creativity. In modern psychological and pedagogical sciences, the phenomenon of communicative creativity is considered as an integral system of psychological properties of a personality that ensures the creative nature of communication and communicative activity. Communicative creativity is represented by a set of cognitive, motivational, emotional, moral and spiritual characteristics of personality and behaviour. Communicative creativity is manifested in divergent thinking in social situations and problems. Communicative creativity is manifested in a specific set of cognitive, emotional and linguistic characteristics. These characteristics are based on social intelligence, awareness of culture, social relations and traditions and are implemented in communication skills, communication competence, the ability to understand the attitudes and feelings of other people.

Background: The mass media are of immense benefit when employed intensively in favor of public health. These media are utilized at all levels of public health in the hope of achieving three major effects: The learning of correct health information and knowledge, the changing of established health attitudes and practices, and the introduction and establishment of new health behavior. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the improvement of communicative, interactive, and oratory skills among the interns of 2006 and 2007 batch in Pushpagiri College of Dental Sciences by conducting live dental health education program (The Radio Program - Pushpavani Aarogyam). Materials and Methods: The study was conducted among the interns of 2006 and 2007 batch in Pushpagiri College of Dental Sciences, Tiruvalla. A sample of 73 interns was enrolled for the study. A closed-ended questionnaire in English was sent by E-mail to all interns, and the improvement of communication skills was evaluated. Data were collected from E-mail, which was mailed back by all interns in 2006 and 2007 batch, and percentage was calculated for each answer. For statistical purpose, mean scores were calculated. Data were analyzed with SPSS 16.0 software, and appropriate statistical tests were applied. Results: Nearly, 91.8% of interns got more knowledge about the subject from their radio program. 93.2% of interns were confident in doing another live dental health education program. 43.8% of interns were confident in attending telephone calls during the radio program. 87.7% of interns had sufficient speech clarity. 74% of interns were tensed while presenting the radio program. 84.9% of interns have improved their mother tongue after radio program. 95.9% of interns had improved their communication skills. 94.5% of interns considered it beneficial and proposed that it should be continued as a curriculum program. Conclusion: The radio program was found to be highly effective and beneficial to the public as well as to the dental interns who put their efforts in educating the masses. The subject knowledge, presentation skill, communication skills, and self-confidence were found to be significantly improved in dental graduates through the radio programs.

Any language teaching and learning process should include language etiquette. The learning of foreign languages during any stage is characterised by the interaction of many factors such as mother tongue, culture, educational background, and psychological characteristics, among others. The development of socio-cultural competency in teaching a foreign language is a challenging undertaking for teachers. Foreign students from Sudan, Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other countries can learn Malay in one semester at Multimedia University, Malaysia. This study aims to discuss the importance for international students to learn language etiquette, and to explore the components of language etiquette that international students acquired. This study used a field research method, i.e. the language method in its context, for data analysis. Observations in class and conversations from the Google Meet chat box were used to collect data for this study. It was discovered through data analysis that instructors should be aware of and appreciate the students' native culture as well as their cultural differences in the classroom. It helps all participants/students to pick up the foreign language and its culture as well. In terms of cultural aspects, if the learner's socio-cultural competence is well defined and built during the language teaching process, he or she can be almost on par with native speakers. However, it should be noted that, while etiquette is a fixed part of the culture, norms are constantly evolving. This research focuses on foreign students' language etiquette in Malay language classes. However, future research could focus on other courses or on students' everyday lives. The primary goal of foreign language teaching and learning is for students to be able to speak and comprehend the foreign language. The education of culture and linguistic etiquette is critical to achieving these goals.

Seven postlinguistically deaf adults implanted with the Nucleus Multi-Electrode Cochlear Implant participated in an evaluation of speech perception performance with three speech processors: the Wearable Speech Process (WSP III), a prototype of the Mini Speech Processor, and the Mini Speech Processor. The first experiment was performed with the prototype and Wearable Speech Processor both programmed using the F0F1F2 speech coding strategy. The second experiment compared performance with the Mini Speech Processor programmed with the Multi-Peak speech coding strategy and the Wearable Speech Processor programmed with the F0F1F2 speech coding strategy. Performance was evaluated in the sound-only condition using recorded speech tests presented in quiet and in noise. Questionnaires and informal reports provided information about use in everyday life. In experiment I, there was no significant difference in performance using the Wearable Speech Processor and prototype on any of the tests. Nevertheless, six out of seven subjects preferred the prototype for use in everyday life. In experiment II, performance on open-set tests in quiet and noise was significantly higher with the Mini Speech Processor (Multi-Peak speech coding strategy) than with the Wearable Speech Processor. Subjects reported an increase in their ability to communicate with other people using the Mini Speech Processor (Multi-Peak speech coding strategy) compared with the Wearable Speech Processor in everyday life.

Shy children tend to have verbal communication problems and low self-esteem. However, the confidence and communication skills of these children could not be developed solely through classroom instructions. Ironically, the co-curricular program provides a good medium for communication activities that can improve their confidence and communication skills. Therefore, this study examined children’s communication skills and communication activities during the co-curricular program at their school. The areas of study were the children’s level of shyness, the implementation and the effectiveness of communication activities in the co-curricular program. The quantitative study adopted a non-experimental descriptive research design. The respondents were 357 Grade Six students from elementary schools in Segamat, Johor which was selected from a random sampling. Results showed that most children were having a medium level of shyness and the communication activities were moderately implemented in the co-curricular program at their schools. Almost all respondents viewed communication activities in the co-curricular program as very effective to reduce shyness, enhance their self-esteem and communication skills. Hence, communication skills of shy children can be enhanced through appropriate communication activities conducted during the co-curricular program. Children should be encouraged and trained to speak in public by participating in the debate, public speaking and theatre activities during the co-curricular to reduce their shyness.

In today's marketplace there is an urgent need for innovative “out-of-the-box” thinkers with teaming, communication, and interpersonal skills. Many college courses focus on knowledge acquisition and less on thinking. Some students are losing basic skills for defining, understanding and solving problems while some others struggle with logical and critical thinking. Teaming and communication skills are being addressed in a relatively small number of college courses. In order to get students who can solve real problems, we must address the need for development and implementation of course modules in innovation and inventiveness in different disciplines, especially engineering and technology. Such modules can and should be designed to enhance teaming, communication and interpersonal skills. This paper discusses some of the problems in teaching innovative problem solving and suggests some possible solutions based on experience in an undergraduate course at Florida Atlantic University titled: “Introduction to Inventive Problem Solving in Engineering”. Its goal is to enhance innovative and inventive thinking abilities of undergraduate students resulting in skills that can be used in science, math, engineering and technology. In this paper we detail projects and homework assignments, teaming and communication activities, and hands-on and fun interactive class actions. One of the core ideas of the class is the Eight-dimensional methodology for inventive and innovative problem solving: a systematic approach that stimulates innovation by effectively using both sides of the brain. The methodology is a unified approach that builds on comprehensive problem solving knowledge from industry, business, marketing, math, science, engineering, technology, and daily life. It allows the generation of unique and high quality, outof-the-box multiple solutions in a short period of time. The methodology can be easily taught, learned, and used, and may be practiced by individuals as well as teams. The new course uses hands-on problem-based learning and emphasizes expanding creativity and thinking skills of students. The activities include 3-D mechanical puzzles, games, mind teasers, LEGO® Mindstorms competitions, and design projects. These activities allow for self-paced, semi-guided exploration. They lead to out-of-the-box inventive thinking, imagination, intuition, common sense, and teamwork. The course and the use of the Eight-dimensional methodology have been recently evaluated with encouraging results.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the characteristics of organizational self-assessment and its practical use in everyday life. The material presented discusses the process of performance measurement based on examples from the automotive industry. Focus was placed on the model requirements of the Polish Quality Award (PNJ), after the assessment results present the values in each area of the criteria, their potentials for improvement and examples of corrective actions are indicated. The examples contain solutions in the area of communication improvements and employee suggestion programs.

“The” is a functional word of high-frequency in English. Due to its simple form, Chinese students use it extensively after they have learnt its semantic and grammatical rules, and may show different characteristics from those of native speakers. Based on the use of corpus, this paper compares texts extracted from CLEC and BNC, and finds that both Chinese English learners and native English speakers use “the” most frequently to express “specific reference”, followed by “generic reference”. There is also a feature that Chinese English learners use fixed collocations containing “the” more frequently than native English speakers do, but “the” in these fixed collocations don’t belong to its ideographic function. The enlightenment for English teaching is discussed, as well as reasons for the differences: cultural differences, mother tongue and grammar teaching.

This paper undertakes the investigation of the disposition to stress of Nigerian users of English and the nature of spoken Nigerian English rhythm. The subjects of the study were sixty Nigerians of varied socio-economic, educational and ethno-linguistic backgrounds and a native (British) English speaker, whose productions from reading a passage and speaking freely for three minutes on a common topic were analysed metrically and statistically, using a modified version of the Metrical Theory, the Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Ranks Test and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). In spite of earlier classifications, the study assumes the existence of three varieties of spoken Nigerian English characterized by their disposition to stress and speech rhythm: the “Non-Standard”, the “Standard” and the “Sophisticated” varieties, which are individually different but collectively similar yet different from Standard British English, represented by the control’s performance. The existence of the three varieties is confirmed by the data. The common performance features include a tendency to stress more syllables in words than the native speaker. This feature, which is traceable to the influence of the syllable-timing rhythm of the subjects’ mother tongues, tends to characterize the Nigerian accent of English; but whereas the Non-Standard Variety conforms to the syllable-timing description the Standard and Sophisticated Varieties require further investigation.

This exploratory study evaluated student perceptions of their ability to self- and peer assess (i) interpersonal communication skills and (ii) clinical procedures (a head and neck examination) during standardised patient (SP) interactions recorded by Google Glass compared to a static camera. Students compared the Google Glass and static camera recordings using an instrument consisting of 20 Likert-type items and four open- and closed-text items. The Likert-type items asked students to rate how effectively they could assess specific aspects of interpersonal communication and a head and neck examination in these two different types of recordings. The interpersonal communication items included verbal, paraverbal and non-verbal subscales. The open- and closed-text items asked students to report on more globally the differences between the two types of recordings. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted for all survey items. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to determine qualitative emergent themes from the open-text questions. Students found the Glass videos more effective for assessing verbal (t22 = 2.091, P = 0.048) and paraverbal communication skills (t22 = 3.304, P = 0.003), whilst they reported that the static camera video was more effective for assessing non-verbal communication skills (t22 = -2.132, P = 0.044). Four principle themes emerged from the students' open-text responses comparing Glass to static camera recordings for self- and peer assessment: (1) first-person perspective, (2) assessment of non-verbal communication, (3) audiovisual experience and (4) student operation of Glass. Our findings suggest that students perceive that Google Glass is a valuable tool for facilitating self- and peer assessment of SP examinations because of students' perceived ability to emphasise and illustrate communicative and clinical activities from a first-person perspective.

Enriching the Communication Skills of Pre-Service English Teachers through a Training Design

This study examines the effect of the listener’s mother tongue and competency level in second language (L2) English and L2 Spanish on the pronunciation ratings of Spanish-accented English. Pronunciation is operationalized by means of three constructs: intelligibility, comprehensibility and foreign-accentedness. Stimuli from 60 Spanish speakers of advanced English (levels B2–C2) were collected at a Spanish university. Subsequently, their speech samples were judged by 330 native and non-native speakers of English (Spanish, Polish and Other L1s) in an online test. Differences in intelligibility scores were associated with the listeners’ mother tongue, their English level, and their knowledge of Spanish with native English speakers outperforming all other groups. Foreign-accentedness was also affected by the listeners’ mother tongue: the Spanish listeners were the harshest accentedness judges although their understanding of the samples was not significantly hindered, which may suggest negative in-group attitudes towards Spanish-accented English among Spanish speakers. The native English listeners, conversely, were the most lenient raters. Moreover, comprehensibility differences were associated with the listeners’ mother tongue and their English level. Thus, evidence was found to support the existence of an interlanguage speech comprehensibility and intelligibility benefits, which stresses the role of the listener’s language background and their attitudes towards English as an international language.

The competency and professional growth of the workforce in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is significantly impacted by the individuals’ ability to master oral communication skills as well as articulate opinions amid large audiences. However, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates spend approximately 4 years learning technical skills, with little to no time devoted to enhancing oral communication skills. Regrettably, minority STEM students usually face additional interpersonal barriers that require targeted training to foster their leadership and oral communication skills, which in turn reinforce their readiness for the competitive job markets. This research addressed such drawbacks by integrating innovative cocurricular communication skills activities with the aim of advancing minority students’ oral communication and presentation skills. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the growth in students’ oral communication and presentation skills within four construction management courses through the implementation of three cocurricular activities: (1) in-class expert training; (2) virtual reality presentation simulation training; and (3) social media–based communication activity. The research assessed the effectiveness of these activities in three ways. A benchmark survey recorded baseline data of 327 STEM students about their cognitive-communication skill knowledge and self-efficacy in presentation skills. Pre- and postcourse evaluation surveys of 102 of the 327 students highlighted overall skill growth compared with their performance at the beginning of the semester. An exit survey of 87 of the 102 students recorded their feedback about their social learning experiences and the effectiveness of each of the three implemented cocurricular activities. The results of the study indicated that minority STEM students benefited tremendously from the innovative oral communication skill training because the proposed three cocurricular activities promoted interpersonal growth and addressed some of their identified presentation skills deficiencies. The findings of this study contribute to the engineering and construction education bodies of knowledge by emphasizing the effectiveness of cocurricular communication training within formal and informal educational settings, which can help students to thrive in their future careers by developing and reinforcing their oral communication and presentation skills.