Students’ extensive use of Facebook in their daily lives has led researchers to investigate the a... more Students’ extensive use of Facebook in their daily lives has led researchers to investigate the affordances of Facebook for educational purposes. To further the research into the use of Facebook to improve language teaching, we conducted a convergent parallel mixed-methods study to examine the use of Community of Inquiry-informed Facebook discussion activities on the speaking performances of undergraduate students in a blended EFL speaking class in Bangladesh. A Facebook group was maintained for both the treatment and control conditions; however, the discussion activities were required only by the treatment condition. We found a statistically significant difference between the initial and post-test speaking scores for the treatment and control conditions. While no difference was observed in post-test scores between the two conditions, students’ and the instructor’s comments on the Facebook group and student interview data revealed that Facebook was helpful for both conditions in imp...
This paper presents an analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University in Bangladesh. ... more This paper presents an analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University in Bangladesh. At the outset, what is presented here is a general introduction to what writing means, components of writing, and the different stages that writing involves. Pointing out to the needs of teaching academic writing to university graduates, the common writing tasks required at university level are listed. After a thorough analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University, techniques devised by Raimes are suggested (1983) for task modification. Finally, a conclusion is drawn emphasizing teacher's role and task appropriation in writing instruction. What is Writing? Writing, broadly put, is a cultural invention which has at least two dimensions: at one level, writing is simply a system of storing knowledge information for future references and retrieval. On the second dimension, writing appears to be a thinking process or a tool for thinking. If one focuses on the first dimension,...
Numerous donor-sponsored in-service training programs have been operated in Bangladesh for Englis... more Numerous donor-sponsored in-service training programs have been operated in Bangladesh for English language teachers. EIA was the last donor-funded project that incorporated school-based training. It claimed to acquaint teachers with technology coupled with a lot of interactive activities to be incorporated in the classroom. The aim of the study was to identify the challenges faced by the secondary-school English language teachers in incorporating the elements learned in EIA training into their classroom practices and to identify the solutions to overcome the challenges. The present study undertook reflective theory developed by Wallace (1991). To conduct this study, semi-structured interview with the teachers and semi-structured classroom observation were carried out. Teachers reported some issues that potentially precluded them from employing different activities in their classrooms. In addition, teachers elicited suggestions to overcome the challenges. The interview data were org...
Students’ extensive use of Facebook in their daily lives has led researchers to investigate the a... more Students’ extensive use of Facebook in their daily lives has led researchers to investigate the affordances of Facebook for educational purposes. To further the research into the use of Facebook to improve language teaching, we conducted a convergent parallel mixed-methods study to examine the use of Community of Inquiry-informed Facebook discussion activities on the speaking performances of undergraduate students in a blended EFL speaking class in Bangladesh. A Facebook group was maintained for both the treatment and control conditions; however, the discussion activities were required only by the treatment condition. We found a statistically significant difference between the initial and post-test speaking scores for the treatment and control conditions. While no difference was observed in post-test scores between the two conditions, students’ and the instructor’s comments on the Facebook group and student interview data revealed that Facebook was helpful for both conditions in imp...
This paper presents an analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University in Bangladesh. ... more This paper presents an analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University in Bangladesh. At the outset, what is presented here is a general introduction to what writing means, components of writing, and the different stages that writing involves. Pointing out to the needs of teaching academic writing to university graduates, the common writing tasks required at university level are listed. After a thorough analysis of the writing tasks used at East West University, techniques devised by Raimes are suggested (1983) for task modification. Finally, a conclusion is drawn emphasizing teacher's role and task appropriation in writing instruction. What is Writing? Writing, broadly put, is a cultural invention which has at least two dimensions: at one level, writing is simply a system of storing knowledge information for future references and retrieval. On the second dimension, writing appears to be a thinking process or a tool for thinking. If one focuses on the first dimension,...
Numerous donor-sponsored in-service training programs have been operated in Bangladesh for Englis... more Numerous donor-sponsored in-service training programs have been operated in Bangladesh for English language teachers. EIA was the last donor-funded project that incorporated school-based training. It claimed to acquaint teachers with technology coupled with a lot of interactive activities to be incorporated in the classroom. The aim of the study was to identify the challenges faced by the secondary-school English language teachers in incorporating the elements learned in EIA training into their classroom practices and to identify the solutions to overcome the challenges. The present study undertook reflective theory developed by Wallace (1991). To conduct this study, semi-structured interview with the teachers and semi-structured classroom observation were carried out. Teachers reported some issues that potentially precluded them from employing different activities in their classrooms. In addition, teachers elicited suggestions to overcome the challenges. The interview data were org...
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