Research on note-taking reveals that note-taking is widely used in daily activities to store information, as well as it is often applied in the academic context. It involves a set of cognitive processes and is a combination of various techniques and strategies. In the academic context notes are basically taken during academic lectures and readings. However, little research is done on note-taking during listening activities and its effect on learners’ listening comprehension skills. “The Effect of Voki on EFL Learners’ Speaking Skill” Thesis Committee: Catherine Buon, Ph.D, Melissa Brown, M.A. USING LITERATURE TO PROMOTE LANGUAGE LEARNING IN ARMENIAN EFL SETTINGS: ISSUES AND INSIGHTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION Robert Agajeenian: Reader “The Impact of Wikis on Business English Vocabulary Learning” The study carried out with 8 mid/high intermediate students at UFA showed that DJW did improve significantly the use of certain language functions, namely, expressing opinions, agreeing/disagreeing, and criticizing. Critical thinking was also enhanced, which first was demonstrated by the use of the above-mentioned functions, and secondly, by almost all students providing clarifications and elaboration on the topics. Relationships Between Reading in English and the L1 and L2 (Armenian and/or Russian) Language Proficiencies The data analyses resulting from student and teacher questionnaires, and the teacher interviews, confirmed students’ and teachers’ positive attitudes towards the use of scoring rubrics. By Lilit Petrosyan The aim of this thesis was to investigate language teachers’ and students’ perceptions of assessment procedures currently used in Armenian schools as well as to understand to what extent Armenian teachers and students comprehend the concept of assessment. The participants involved in this study were 20 English teachers and 60 English language students at the high school level from different schools throughout Armenia. Two questionnaires – a student questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire – served as instruments for the study, and they were analyzed using a descriptive method. Thesis Reader: Rubina Gasparyan Student Self-Assessment and Strategy Use As a Means of Promoting Student’s Autonomous Learning The results of the data analysis showed that there is no significant difference in the usefulness of either type of the videos, whereas the interview revealed that the participants showed greater interest towards authentic video materials. The results may be helpful to identify the students’ attitude towards the video materials and also to identify the problematic parts of implementing authentic videos in EFL settings. The aim of this research project was to conduct a qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) as a pedagogical and assessment tool with reference to a particular learning/teaching context (primary schools in Armenia in which the ELP is currently being piloted) and from the perspective of those directly engaged in working with the ELP. For this purpose, it was necessary to explore the implementation of the pedagogical functions of the ELP, to verify the usefulness of the ELP as perceived by teachers and learners and to find out about organizational constraints and issues related to the implementation of the ELP. To gather relevant information, a survey was conducted through a combination of teacher and learner questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with teachers, one of the school principals, the teacher trainer, and the ELP program coordinator. In addition, some of the ELPs developed by the pupils were examined. Robert Agajeenian: Supervisor Thesis Reader: Melissa Brown By: Angela Balasanyan The purpose of this study was to investigate the most common grammatical errors in the writing performance of Armenian learners of English. Errors were studied in order to investigate the impact of the Armenian language on the written production in English, particularly the use of Armenian grammatical rules. The analysis showed that the four most common errors were in article use, word order, subject-verb agreement, and purpose infinitive. The contrastive analysis between Armenian and English on these patterns revealed that about 30 % of the total number of errors (n=427) was caused by a direct transfer from the Armenian language. It was also observed that with increasing proficiency photo editing cover letter, the likelihood of L1 negative transfer decreases. Finally, the results indicated that transfer is a reality and an important determinant in the writing performance of Armenian learners of English. Learners need to understand the differences in the two languages and use appropriate linguistic features to produce good and acceptable sentences in English. It should be mentioned that not all the errors were caused due to the influence of Armenian. Some of the errors reflected the complexities of the English language and common learning strategies employed by the learners. Thesis Committee: Thesis Committee: Irshat Madyarov, Ph.D. Alexan Simonyan, Ph.D. and Liliana Edilyan, M.A. Robert Agajeenian: Reader By Taguhi Sahakyan Thesis Committee: Irshat Madyarov, Ph.D. Alexan Simonyan, Ph.D. Rubina Gasparyan, M.A. Nowadays, when we have “unlimited” chances via technology we can create different types of activities and projects which are motivating and authentic for the 21st century students. Blog use may offer a helpful tool for teaching foreign language writing. This research reports on a quasi-experimental study regarding the effects of blogging on students’ writing performance. It focuses on three aspects of writing topics for term papers in history, i.e. writing fluency, accuracy and complexity, and thus compares and contrasts results between and within groups. Twenty five pre – intermediate Armenian students participated in the study. The control group (n=13) did their writing assignments as homework and paper based ad the experimental group (n=12) accomplished the writing assignments by using blogging software. “The Effectiveness of Instructional vs. Authentic Video Materials for Developing Listening Comprehension Skills” By Christina Sargsyan This study investigated the potential of the relationship between the English reading proficiency of the Intensive English Program (IEP) students at the American University of Armenia (AUA) as measured by their reading comprehension scores in their Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) results and their L1 and/or L2 (Armenian and/or Russian) overall proficiency as measured by their final marks in Armenian and Russian at the secondary school. Participants were 88 students of the IEP at AUA, Yerevan, Armenia. This study was an ex post facto design. To get the statistical description of the variables in terms of their mean, mode, median, standard deviation, and range, the University Procedure was employed. To investigate the existence of any statically significant relationship between the variables, that is, to be able to answer the research question, General Linear Models Procedure, the multivariate or multifactor analysis, with an alpha level of .05 was used. The two analyses conducted with the purpose of answering the research question yielded the following results. In the first analysis when the participants of the study were grouped with 0.5 difference in the knowledge of Armenian and Russian, there appeared to be no relationship between the two variables. Given the sample size example discursive essay writing, this seems to suggest that the 0.5 increase in Armenian and Russian (L1 and/or L2) proficiency might be insufficient to reveal the increase in L2 (English) reading ability. The results of the second analysis, when proficient or competent in L1 and L2 participants were compared to the weak in their L1 and L2 students, namely, when only “5”s in both Armenian and Russian languages and Literatures were contrasted with “4”s and “3”, showed that there is statistically significant relationship between the knowledge of the participants in Armenian and Russian as measured by their school marks and their TOEFL reading scores. Thesis Supervisor: Robert Agajeenian, Ph. D. This paper investigates the extent to which student self-assessment and learning strategy use may promote autonomous learning. For this purpose, the student self-assessment and language learning strategy use are investigated by means of a self-assessment questionnaire. The research was conducted in the Intensive English Program of the Department of English Programs at the American University of Armenia. Sixty-eight students participated in the study. The answers to the questions in the self-assessment questionnaire are compared with the answers to a guided letter writing task which was used to investigate the students’ readiness for autonomous learning. The validity of the student self-assessment is established through determining the relationships between the student self-assessments on the one hand and the exit TOEFL and the midterm test on the other hand. The Role of Gender in Teacher-Learner Interaction through Dialogue Journal Writing By Susanna Sargsyan Maximizing Learning Opportunities and Teaching Potential: A Case Study The results obtained from the pre-test and post -test revealed that there was a significant increase in both the experimental and the control groups. In addition to that, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test comparing the effect sizes revealed that both groups grow equally. This means that role play helped students to improve their speaking. However, as the alternative types of speaking activities implemented in the control group also helped the students to improve their speaking it can be inferred that both methods used in this study were equally and largely effective. The results obtained through the questionnaire revealed that the students’ attitude towards role play was quite positive. The qualitative data gained from the interview also revealed positive effects of students’ attitude. The other qualitative data in form of teacher’s field notes provided an insight about the treatment in the experimental group and the main procedure of the class. “The Impact of Formative Assessment on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Enhancement” Sivakumar Sivasubramaniam: Supervisor Translation as a Language Learning Tool Thesis Committee: Irshat Madyarov, Ph.D. Liliana Edilyan, M.A. The test of English as a Foreign Language for more than four decades has been used as a means of screening students for determining if they are linguistically ready to undertake education in an American university. In the meantime, this test has evolved constantly in the course of time to boost its validity as well as to be a better representative of test-takers’ English language abilities. Despite these, the predictive power of this test has always been questioned and the test-takers’ attitudes have rarely been investigated. Therefore, the present study was intended to investigate the predictive validity of TOEFL scores on American University of Armenia’s (AUA) students first and second quarters’ grade point average (GPA). It also aimed to ascertain their attitudes towards the two versions of TOEFL (iBT and PBT) as fair measures of their English language ability and gate-keeping tests. Based on the findings, recommendations for future research are offered. From the results revealed via the pre and post-tests it could be inferred that the both experimental and the focus groups performed similarly during the pre and post-tests. Therefore, the treatment with the implementation of educational casual computer games did not give significant improvement in learners’ English language achievement, as compared with the control groups’ results. However kill mockingbird essays, both groups indicated a significant improvement in the language proficiency from the pretest to the posttest in favor of posttest. Thesis Supervisor: Robert Agajeenian, Ph.D. The validity of the identification of typical learning style was established by means of the Chi-square statistical test, since the variables were measured on a nominal scale. The validity of the relationship of the learning styles and strategies was established by means of a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical test, as the variables were measured on both nominal and ordinal scales. The study demonstrated that there was a statistically significant and meaningful relationship between learning styles and strategies. This is to say, the learners’ strategy choice depends on their individual learning style preference. However, since this research is the first in its kind conducted in Armenia, it can serve only as a starting point for possible directions in future research. Consequently, further research is needed to make more conclusive claims. Acknowledging the benefits of DJWs, the majority of both the female and male students wanted to continue writing the journals. This study revealed that there was a significant difference among the four Mini Projects written throughout the term. Further the analysis showed that there was improvement in the language knowledge from the point of view of lexical errors, errors in cohesion, errors in mechanics, and run on sentences. The analysis of the questionnaire showed that the majority of the students believed that instructor’s written corrective feedback was useful for them, since it helped them to find and correct their errors as they would know where their mistakes were. Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Scoring Rubrics for Speaking Skills The study comprises the quantitative data. The data were collected through a self assessment checklist and pre-and post interviews (Oral Proficiency Type Interview). The data collected from the pre- and post-tests were analyzed by implementing the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests, in order to compare the test results of both groups. The research was carried out in the Experimental English Classes (EEC) in the Department of English Programs (DEP) at the American University of Armenia (AUA). Two groups participated in the experiment: the experimental conclusion for persuasive essay, which received the treatment by reading the books of graded readers series in addition to the textbook and the control group which used only their textbooks. From two groups involved in the study, the experimental group received the treatment, whereas the control group received placebo. The effectiveness of the treatment was investigated through quasi-experimental research design. The study comprised both quantitative (pre and post tests, attitudinal questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interview) data collection instruments. Teachers are mostly interested in a particular kind of motivation – student motivation to learn. If any teacher is asked to identify the most powerful influence on learning higher english essay ideas, motivation would be the most widely-used term. Many of us believe that learning occurs when we want to learn. However, the concept of motivation has passed through a number of different interpretations and the term is used in different ways, by different people. The aim of my thesis is to investigate how teachers and students perceive the concept of “motivation” in Armenia as well as how to motivate and what motivates students to achieve success in foreign language learning. It also indicates that teacher and student motivation changes overtime and thereby necessitating a well-informed focus on what the dominant type of motivation that triggers students to learn English in the Armenian setting. The purpose of the present research was to attempt a well-informed understanding of motivation and achievement from the student’s perspective. Specifically, the research focused on the type of motivation used in the Armenian setting, its change overtime and learners’ achieved success in learning English. The proposed research was conducted using qualitative research methods. The needed data were collected through questionnaires, constructed for both teachers and students, and by means of semi-structured interviews with teachers and students that were meant to serve as my research instruments. I constructed two different questionnaires: one for teachers and the other for students. The level of difficulty of questions was different. Teacher and student questionnaires and interviews were piloted among friends and colleagues who are English teachers in different secondary schools. Students, engaged in the study, were not only students of 9 th and 10 th grades but also students of different grades, even undergraduate students. The selection of these various-age students (15-21 year-old students) was done with the aim of getting more in-depth descriptive data on FL learning motivation and achievement from these students’ perspective. Thus, it was necessary for me to target about thirty students and fifteen teachers for conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews using of survey questionnaires. This thesis investigates the effect of learners’ retrospective reflection on strategy use (without explicit training in strategy use) in developing their reading comprehension. There is need for such research as there is little evidence in the area of the usefulness of promoting learners’ individual reflection on the reading process and use of strategies to cope with the reading material under conditions of receiving no explicit training in reading strategies. By Liana Sukiasyan The radical change in the distribution of power and authority in the traditional language classroom is the result of the changes in the curriculum towards a more learner-centered kind of learning. In the new classroom, which is designed to promote learner autonomy, language teachers are able and willing to share instructional responsibilities with their learners, and learners are expected to assume greater responsibility for and take charge of their own learning. To see the consistency of the grades submitted by the teacher and the co-rater among the groups additional Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability scale was used. The results of the scale showed that the teacher and the co-rater had very high reliability in grading the groups (experimental, control). The purpose of the present study was to investigate what effect the explanation of learners’ grammatical errors would have on their written performance, as well as to see what attitude the students had towards having their errors treated. The study was carried out in the Experimental English Classes (hereinafter EEC) at the American University of Armenia (hereinafter AUA). Two groups were involved in the study. The focus group received treatment. The results of the study show that the main difficulties facing Armenian scholars are language proficiency and lack of material resources (i.e. computers, access to the Internet, printers, photocopiers, etc.). In spite of the increasing number of publications in English, the majority of publications are still in Russian, which shows the on-going link between Russian and Armenian scientific communities. However, it is mainly the older generation of scholars who consider publishing in Russian important. No young scholar mentioned Russian as an important language to publish in. The results of the study also show that senior researchers in Armenia are not at an advantage in comparison with junior researchers when they attempt to publish in international journals. Learning Style Preferences and Learning Strategy Use of Armenian University Learners Teacher behavior is considered to be an important factor for teaching and learning process. Teacher behavior determines the type of the classroom whether it is teacher-centered or learner-centered. This study was designed to investigate if the students’ attitude towards teacher behavior affects their learning achievement in the Armenian EFL classrooms, in order to see if there was a need to shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered classrooms. by Liliana Edilyan “The Impact of Digital Storytelling on EFL learners’ Speaking Skill” The current study discusses the role of affective factors Armenian learners have towards learning EFL (English as a Foreign Language). The study focused on Attitude, Instrumental and Integrative orientations, and was designed as a case study, which aimed to report the relationship between Armenian EFL students’ motivation and attitude and impact of these affective factors on L2 achievement. In order to achieve the primary aim of the study, three different instruments were utilized to obtain data: a questionnaire, assessing students’ motivation and attitude, interviews, and achievement tests. In order to explore non-English major students’ motivational and attitudinal thinking of their English learning, as well as their motivational beliefs affecting their efforts learning English good english research paper topics, 100 students from levels 2-6 attending the American University of Armenia Extension Program (AUA, EP) English Language courses, were given survey questionnaires adapted from Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and, including only 10 students attending the 7th level were interviewed. The findings demonstrated that in Armenian foreign language situations, affective variables (motivation and attitude) play an important role and affect L2 learning achievement. The findings also revealed that achievement of students with the different levels of motivational orientations and attitudes are not very different. The study concludes with a section on implications and limitations. Finally, recommendations regarding future research in this area in Armenia have been highlighted. The study revealed that learners agreed on the advantages of being involved in information gap and imagination gap. Information gap, opinion gap, and imagination gap activities were best realized through group work and pair work, while reasoning gap was more productive in a discussion. Accepting the usefulness of pair work and discussions in the language classroom, the majority of learners agreed that pair work and discussion activities were appropriate for promoting communication in the classroom. This study sets out to investigate if learners are aware of using learning strategies to enhance vocabulary learning, and if strategy training is effective for improving vocabulary learning in the Armenian EFL environment. The study also aimed to discover what types of learning strategies learners use when learning new vocabulary. The research was carried out at the European Regional Academy of the Caucasus within a five-week period. The subjects were thirty-two second-year and third-year students. The language level of the subjects was upper-intermediate. Immediate post tests, a final test and a questionnaire were used for data collection. The first stage of the research was the development and operation of the strategy training courses in the classroom. Four strategies were introduced to the students: word parts: roots, prefixes and suffixes; guessing from context; word associations and semantic mapping; and story making. The data collected through the field notes and interviews were analyzed qualitatively, and the data collected through the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively using t -test analysis. The analyses indicated that both individual and pair work contributed to student motivation in English language learning, and that the difference of student motivation for both modes of task completion was not significant. Hranush Ginosyan was primarily responsible for the analysis of the SILL questionnaire as well as for investigating the relationship between learning styles and language learning strategies (Part 2 of the research findings). Participants were 168 first-year graduate students from all the existing study programs at AUA, enrolled in 2010. The predictive variables in this study were PBT and iBT TOEFLs total scores as well as iBT sub-scores, while the criterion measures were students’ Fall and Winter GPAs. The participants were also given two separate questionnaires – one for iBT test-takers and one for PBT test-takers – to investigate their perceptions of the tests. The experiment was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the treatment, which was done through quasi-experimental research. The study comprises the quantitative data. The quantitative data was collected through pre- and post-tests and the questionnaire. The data collected from the pre- and post-tests were analyzed by implementing the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests, in order to compare the test results of both groups. Robert Agajeenian: Reader Robert Agajeenian: Reader By Marine Arakelyan The analysis of the pre- and post-tests showed a significant difference between the experimental and comparison groups. The results of the attitudinal questionnaire were analyzed through frequency analyses. For the analysis of the qualitative data collected through the interview, a content analysis was applied that integrated identifying the key topics and categories in the data. The results of the questionnaire and the interview revealed that formative assessment had positive influence on the learners’ vocabulary enhancement. The students claimed that formative assessment techniques helped them to become actively involved in their learning process and motivated them to learn the English vocabulary. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the implementation of a language teacher’s professional portfolio in the curriculum of the Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL) program at American University of Armenia (AUA) and to investigate its later contributive role in a student’s career as a teacher in Armenia. In light of this, the study aims to investigate the extent to which the process of implementing a teacher’s professional portfolio in the CTEFL program at AUA has affected the overall efficiency of the educational process. More specifically, this study tries to explore to what extent the CTEFL students’ awareness of the fact that their current academic works (e.g. lesson plans, projects, research papers, etc. marked by the faculty and fulfilled according to the requirements of different courses), which are later to be included into their Professional Portfolios, affect their motivation and perceptions of autonomy while following the prescribed program of studies at AUA. The study has been conducted at AUA and the data has been collected mainly by means of questionnaires distributed to the CTEFL graduate students of the two academic years: 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. The data for the study has also included the professional portfolios submitted by the students. The audio-taped interviews with the potential employers were aimed at revealing the potential employers’ attitudes towards recognizing teacher’s professional portfolios as an admission measure while hiring a teacher in Armenia. As the results of the study indicate, the accruing insights and information support the researcher’s belief in the efficacy of using professional portfolios in all the tertiary level institutions in Armenia. which are devoted to language teacher education. The recommendations and suggestions are also provided for the successful implementation of professional portfolios in Armenian EFL settings. Thesis Reader: Rubina Gasparyan The research was conducted in a natural classroom setting. To find out which ways of class organization and which types of class activities created more opportunities for negotiation of meaning in the setting in which I teach, the number of interactional moves in students’ production was calculated. Nine close-ended questionnaires based upon issues identified in the students’ current textbook and one open-ended questionnaire aimed to elicit students’ perceptions and comments on effectiveness of interaction during the class were used. The percentage of students choosing each particular answer on a Likert scale was calculated to determine the students’ opinions about the productiveness of different ways of class organization as well as effectiveness of different tasks to promote interaction. The study shows that self-assessment and learning strategy use have an impact on the students’ understanding of the concept of autonomous learning. Further research may provide more conclusive evidence. Thesis Committee: Catherine Buon, Ph.D. Lilianna Edilyan, M.A. The results of the quantitative analysis of between-group comparisons demonstrated no significant difference on average in performances of both groups during the pre- and post-tests, separately. The students’ achievement from test to test within the groups, in both experimental and comparison groups cool topic for research papers, revealed significant difference between pre- and post-tests results in favor of the post-test. The Effect of Learners’ Retrospective Reflection on Direct Strategy Use in Developing Their Reading Proficiency IMPLEMENTING INTERCULTURAL LEARNING IN THE EFL/ ESL LEARNING CONTEXT The study tried to investigate to usefulness of the two types of video materials as compared to each other: instructional vs. authentic. As there was not much significance for the higher level of usefulness for any of these tools, it was decided to explore this issue and also to find out EFL learners’ attitude toward these two tools. The experiment was conducted within one group (10 participants). The students were exposed to both instructional and authentic videos. After each video activity they were given questionnaires, and after each two videos they were given a short test. Thus, two types of data were obtained: quantitative and qualitative, thus making the research mixed-method. Thesis Supervisor: Hossein Farhady, Ph.D Questions and Questioning Techniques in the EFL Classroom The quantitative method of data analysis is used for analyzing the data gained from 30 Armenian students with an intermediate level of L2 proficiency aged between 16 to 17 years. The materials used in this investigation are a listening comprehension section from a TOEFL test (a Test of English as a Foreign Language) and attitude questionnaires. The data gained from the listening comprehension test are analyzed on the basis of both a paired t-test and an independent t-test. The data gained from the attitude questionnaires are analyzed through the calculation of the frequency of the students’ responses. According to the results of the questionnaire there is mainly a significant difference in favor of the private kindergartens from which it could be concluded that parents if private kindergartens give more importance to the fact of being informed about the current methods sociology research paper format, approaches and the overall English program implemented in the particular kindergarten. The findings from the observations reveal that the English teachers of private kindergartens have an access to new methods and approaches as the lessons are implemented with various authentic materials which encompass teaching songs, poems, and tales. The material and books used by the teachers are mostly published by Oxford, Cambridge and Macmillan publication. By Irena Gyulazyan The purpose of the present study was to investigate what effect formative assessment can have on the achievement of the students learning English in an Armenian setting. The study was quasi experimental and was carried out in the Experimental English Classes (EEC) at the American University of Armenia (AUA). Two groups were involved in the study, the experimental and the comparison. The experimental group received treatment and the comparison group did not. Besides, the current research was aiming to find out the students’ perceptions and attitude towards formative assessment. The findings indicated that students learn better and have some achievement in a teacher-centered classroom with a teacher controller. The results of the qualitative data show that students are more motivated but have lower achievement in a student-centered classroom with a teacher-facilitator. Students’ Perceptions of Small Group Program of the American University of Armenia By Magdalina Arzakanyan Thesis Committee: Irshat Madyarov help with cover letter for free, Ph.D. Alexan Simonyan, Ph.D. and Melissa Brown, M.A. The results of the study reflected that there was no significant difference between the polite responses of native English speakers and native Armenian speakers. The chi square results showed as well that gender and educational level did not play a role on the polite responses of the respondents. The only significant difference was observed in the responses given by the respondents belonging to the age group 16 to 35, where the native English speakers’ responses were more polite than the native Armenian speakers. This thesis is the result of a collaborative effort by the two authors, Nellie Harutyunyan and Rubina Gasparyan. The definition of the research questions, the review of literature, the preparation of the questionnaire and the guided letter forms, the discussion of the limitations of the study and the conclusion with recommendations were shared equally by the authors. THE IMPORTANCE OF APPROPRIATE PEER REVIEW TECHNIQUES IN ARMENIAN EFL WRITING COURSES The research is carried out with one group using a pre-post test experiment format. During the experiment, the eleven participants read five reading passages taken from TOEFL preparation course manuals and were required to reflect on the strategies they used to answer the questions on the reading passages in their learning logs. The participants were administered a pre-test before the experiment began and a post-test at the end of the treatment period. The mean scores for both tests are compared using a paired t-test. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference between the mean scores. Small group instruction has been extensively implemented in the Intensive English Program of the American University of Armenia to prepare students for the university content courses where cooperative small group learning is widely used. This study investigated IEP students’ perceptions of this instructional format to determine how it affects students’ learning and what problems they see in regard to it in order for the faculty to respond to students’ concerns. The issues addressed were how students conceptualize the purpose of small group learning, their learning style preferences, the most successful small group tasks, and the usefulness of small group learning for the enhancement of students’ social skills, higher order thinking, psychological wellbeing and learning English. The Impact of Online Activities on Armenian EFL Learners’ Achievement This study presents an investigation into the effect of note-taking on EEC (Experimental English Classes) students’ listening comprehension skills and their attitudes towards taking notes during listening activities. The study initially assumed that note-taking during listening activities has no effect on EEC students’ listening comprehension skills. In order to obtain data on the research, five instruments were used: 1) a pre-test, 2) class observations, 3) a post-test, 4) a closed-ended questionnaire with a space for follow up comments, and 5) a semi-structured interview. This study used a quantitative design as the main research methodology, and also employed a supplementary follow-up qualitative interview. Consequently, two types of data were obtained from these instruments: qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative data was analyzed through SPSS software package, and qualitative data was first transcribed and then analyzed. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate to what extent group-work cooperative learning affects learner perception of autonomy. This study investigated the effects of practice in retelling stories on the improvement of students’ oral proficiency. The subjects in this study were 30 students (9-15 age range) of English language courses of the Experimental English Classes in the American University of Armenia. Students were beginner language learners. At each of the 17 sessions, the subjects listened to the teacher telling a story and then they retold the story. At the beginning of the two- month semester, the students took an oral test which aimed to evaluate their oral proficiency before the treatment. Besides the pre-test there was a post- test with the same procedures. This research paper is a joint thesis of two authors: Hranush Ginosyan and Shoghik Sargsyan. Assessing Speaking in Armenian EFL Classrooms Thesis Reader: Rubina Gasparyan “The Effect of CALL Audio-Visual Activities on the Development of Listening and Speaking Skills of Armenian EFL Learners” Nowadays, technology has emerged into nearly all the spheres of our lives. Language teaching and learning is not an exception. For having new developments and for making changes to better, there is always a need to explore, investigate and to experiment some things. The technological tools used in language teaching are not few. One of those technological tools is video, the effective use of which is assured by many scholars. In Soviet times language teaching in Armenia was dominated by a teacher-centered, book-centered and grammar-translation method. There was a ‘one-size-fits-all’ type of syllabus tailored for all students, irrespective of their personal inclinations, and teacher instructions were presented mostly through lecturing; the learning material was presented explicitly and students were to memorize grammar rules and long lists of vocabulary. This is not to underestimate the professional qualities of the teachers working in the educational system, since most of them were really knowledgeable in their profession and cared about their students, but the application of innovative approaches was not rewarded at that time. Nevertheless, it should be admitted that there were a lot of positive aspects in the traditional educational system, and many of the approaches applied then are still applicable. However, today the educational system in Armenia is starting to change and more contemporary methods are starting to prevail in teaching. Such contemporary methods of language teaching aim at communication, and the learner is regarded as a “…“whole person” who uses intellectual, social, emotional, and physical resources and is therefore not merely a cognitive/metacognitive information-processing machine” (Oxford, 1992/1993). This means that the learners have unique individualities and their own preferences toward learning. And these factors may be crucial in ensuring success in language learning. The Impact of Using L1 in EFL Instruction “The Effect of the Explanation of Students’ Grammatical Errors on Their Written Performance” “Implementation of formative assessment and its effect in an Armenian setting” The Role of Different Types of Activities and Ways of Class Organization in Promoting Classroom Interaction through Negotiation of Meaning Robert Agajeenian: Supervisor Student Motivation in Individual and Pair Work qualitative and quantitative data: Questionnaire, Interview and Lesson Observations. Results of this study show that the majority of EFL learners, acknowledging the benefits of mobile phone assisted listening activities, think that mobile phones can help them enhance their listening skills. Performing a quick search for the definition of e-learning, we will be provided by a great number of relevant responses. Perhaps, the most concise definition is that e-learning is an approach that enhances and facilitates learning through the use of computer-based tools. One of the newest members of e-learning tools is Voki which may have the potential to change the dynamics of the classroom making it more learner-centered. The data analyses resulting from class observations, student, the course instructor interviews, and questionnaires confirmed the benefits of learner-centered approach to TEFL, which creates a positive context for increasing and sustaining learner motivation. MOTIVATION AS ONE OF THE CONTRIBUTING PERSONALITY FACTORS TO SUCCESS IN THE FL CLASSROOM By Karine Harutyunyan The purpose of the current paper is to investigate whether and to what extent formative assessment influenced the EFL learners’ vocabulary enhancement. It also aimed at determining the students’ attitudes towards using formative assessment in the vocabulary learning process. The study was carried out in the Experimental English Classes (EEC), Department of English Programs (DEP) at the American University of Armenia (AUA). Two groups were involved in the study, the experimental and the comparison. The experimental group practiced the vocabulary with the help of formative assessment, whereas for the comparison group traditional exercises and activities were implemented. By: Karine Karapetyan The instruments that were used for collecting data were: 1) pretest (picture storytelling task and answering questions 2) posttest (picture storytelling task and answering the questions task) and 3) a questionnaire. The data collected from the pre and post tests were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests, in order to see the rater consistency between the teacher and the co-rater. The data collected through the questionnaire was analyzed both quantitavily and qualitatively. The current study examines the English for Non-English Language Major (ENELM) courses in Armenia (which resembles both CBI and ESP in some aspects) to locate them in the scheme of ESP as it is taught around the world. It also surveys the existing attitudes towards this specialized English instruction among 80 students and 8 instructors in three American Universities: the Yerevan State Medical University, the Yerevan State Engineering University and the Yerevan State University. The questionnaire survey was designed to reveal attitudes towards the following: the importance of PE; the target needs of students in PE; the quality of PE course materials; students’ needs in each of the four language skills; students awareness of their PE course objectives; student participation in the discussing of the PE course objectives; and the influence of such participation on student learning. In addition instructor interviews were conducted. In order to get the necessary information to describe ENELM both in Soviet Armenia and in independent Armenia, as well as to explain the findings of the quantitative research. The rapid development of modern technologies and multimedia tools, make the researchers, language teacher seek for newer ways of implementing them in the classroom setting, and creating a stress free environment for language learning. The Effect of Intercultural Activities as an EFL Teaching Technique The present thesis examines the reasons for the attitudes underlying the expressed need of the IEP students’ for more grammar. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from the IEP faculty and students about their attitudes towards grammar instruction. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to analyze and interpret the data. Through the analysis of the data obtained from the tests it was revealed that both groups, regardless of being assigned project work or not, performed equally during the achievement tests they were given during the ten week course, i.e. there was no significant difference in terms of language improvement between the experimental and control groups at the end of instruction. However, in the analysis of the questionnaire administered in the experimental group at the end of the classes, as well as he analysis of their responses to the interview questions it was found out that the students of the experimental group highly appreciate their experience of doing project work and working collaboratively with their peers. They found it beneficial for their studies and felt that it contributed greatly to their language achievement. By: Tatevik Zargaryan Listening Comprehension testing Methods and Their Impact on Student Performance Project-based instruction has been heralded as a most promising activity that can engage students into academic language and literacy skills. A growing body of evidence indicates that project learning supports the development of critical skills students must have to meet the demands of the 21st century. However, there is scanty research on project-based instruction in general and on its effect on language achievement in particular. This study aimed at investigating the syntactic errors in the spoken production of Armenian EFL learners. The syntactic errors were identified and classified in 11 relevant categories. The statistical analyses showed that the most frequent errors occur in the usage of articles and inversion in WH questions. The errors of those 2 categories were analyzed with the means of contrastive and error analyses and their possible sources were proposed. The contrastive and error analysis of the most frequent errors revealed that the sources of those errors may be the interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer and the communication and learning strategies employed by the learners. It was also observed that the same error may be caused by more than one factor; there were many cases of errors when the source might be both the interlingual and intralingual transfer. Thesis Advisor: Hossein Farhady, Ph. D. An Evaluation of the European Language Portfolio in the Armenian Learning/Teaching Context Thesis reader: Liliana Edilyan
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