Suchergebnisse

Reflection and reflective practices are integral to teacher education; therefore, this study contributes to the growing literature on reflective practice by uncovering gender differences. The study explored the influence of gender differences and teaching experience on postsecondary instructors' conscious reflective teaching practice, using a survey of 226 male and 207 female EFL instructors working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results indicated that females scored higher than males on the total English Language Teaching Reflection Inventory (ELTRI) scores, except on the critical factor of the ELTRI, where males outperformed. The results also revealed that experienced instructor participants had a significantly higher score on the total ELTRI than novice instructor participants. The study proposes a tangible, flexible resource for reflective practices of applied, cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and critical reflection, and offers assistance to counter gender differences. The study recommends designing guides with effective and valid instruments for fostering reflective teaching practices. Policymakers in higher institutions should prepare systematic programs and provide remedial resources and events for instructors to target the most challenging areas for both genders. Future research should also consider other factors, such as the academic degree, cultural background, and linguistic differences that might affect the instructors' knowledge and reflective practice.

Understanding how second language proficiency and other key learner characteristics relate to language learning anxiety subcomponents can help inform the type and quantity of content instructors approach foreign language (FL) students with when teaching English. This study seeks to understand how FL proficiency (i.e., TOEIC reading, TOEIC listening, and self-reported), FL study experience, and gender influence levels of foreign language classroom anxiety and second language writing anxiety. To accomplish the research goals, 245 students completed a questionnaire measuring foreign language classroom anxiety and second language writing anxiety. Three hierarchical linear regressions were used to test the study's models, and structural equation modeling was used to confirm and illustrate the observed relationships. Overall, self-reported FL proficiency was a stronger predictor of anxiety than actual FL proficiency. Findings further indicate that FL listening and self-reported proficiency significantly negatively correlate with FL speaking anxiety but not writing anxiety. Only FL reading proficiency significantly influenced FL writing anxiety; however, this relationship disappeared when self-reported FL proficiency was added to the model. Further, differences in how FL proficiency influences FL anxiety when controlling for years of experience studying EFL and gender are discussed. Recommendations on how instructors can approach language instruction to assist highly anxious students in the EFL context are also discussed.

Background: The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has resulted in a drastic alteration to billions of individuals' emotional, physical, mental, social, and financial status. As of July 21st, 2020, there had been 14.35 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 0.60 million deaths in 216 countries.Design and Methods: The study explores health and well-being in universities within the G20 countries (19 member countries and the European Union) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample selection of these countries was considered since it serves around 80% of the world's economic output, two-thirds of the global population (including more than half of the world's poor), and 75% of international trade. Specifically, due to this public health concern, schools' nationwide closures are impacting over 60% of the world's student population to promote their quality of life and well-being.Results: This study investigates the G20 policies and procedures within higher education regarding health and well-being measures during the COVID-19 epidemic. The findings reveal that the lockdown, social distancing, and self-isolation requirements are stressful and detrimental for many individuals and have caused students' health and well-being concerns.Conclusions: Several countries within the G20 have taken significant steps to support health and well-being issues for university students; however, numerous countries are far behind in addressing this issue. Hence, government leaders of G20 countries, policymakers, and health providers should promptly take the necessary measures to regulate the outbreak, improve safety measures to decrease disease transmission, and administer those who demand medical attention.

The rise of the internet has generated a need for fast online translations, which human translators cannot meet. Statistical tools such as Google and Baidu Translate provide automatic translation from one written language to another. This study reports the descriptive comparison of the machine-translation (MT) with human translation (HT), considering the metadiscoursal interactional features. The study uses a parallel corpus consisting of 79 texts translated from Chinese to English by professional human translators and machine translations (Baidu translate & Google translate) and a comparable reference corpus of non-translated English text. The statistical analysis revealed no statistically significant difference between Baidu and Google translate regarding all types of metadiscoursal indicators. However, the findings of this study demonstrate significant disparities in the interactional characteristics of various HT and MT groups. Compared to the metadiscourse features in non-translated English political texts, human translators were found to outperform machine translations in the use of attitude markers. In contrast, the distribution of directives in machine-translated texts is more native-like. In addition, MT and HT have utilized a significantly smaller number of hedges, self-mention, and readers than non-translated texts. Our results indicate that the MT systems, though still calling for further improvement, have shown tremendous growth potential and may complement human translators.