Revista electrónica de investigación psicoeducativa y psicopedagógica, Nov 2, 2017
In the application of the Original Bloom's taxonomy since its publication in 1956, several weakne... more In the application of the Original Bloom's taxonomy since its publication in 1956, several weaknesses and practical limitations have been revealed. Besides, psychological and educational research has witnessed the introduction of several theories and approaches to learning which make students more knowledgeable of and responsible for their own learning, cognition, and thinking. Hence, a group of researchers revised the Original taxonomy in order to overcome its weaknesses and to incorporate the recent developments. The purpose of the present article is to present a concise and critical review of both the Original and Revised taxonomy with reference to their underlying philosophy, rationale, structure and potential pedagogic uses.
The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in EFL learning has been increasingly recognized. Deve... more The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in EFL learning has been increasingly recognized. Developments in 'lexical semantics' have prompted the development of the 'semantic field theory', 'semantic networks', or 'semantic grid' strategies, which organize words in terms of interrelated lexical meanings. The purpose of the present article is to discuss the pedagogic implications of 'semantic field theory' to EFL vocabulary instruction.
This study investigated the effect of teaching a test-taking strategy to EFL students on their pe... more This study investigated the effect of teaching a test-taking strategy to EFL students on their performance on EFL tests. Eighty-two 7th-grade students participated in the study. The experimental group (n = 40) was taught the components of a test-taking strategy: to read the instructions carefully, to schedule their time appropriately, to make use of clue words in the questions, to delay answering difficult questions, and to review their work in order to check their answers. The results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group (n = 42). The findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between test-performance and skill in test-taking. The findings also suggest support for training EFL classroom teachers to provide instruction in test-taking strategy
This study was prompted by awareness of college students' difTiculties understanding scientific t... more This study was prompted by awareness of college students' difTiculties understanding scientific texts in English. To help students overcome these difliculties, the present researcher investigated the effect of using two reading study strategies (i.e., knowledge-map and underlining) on the students' reading comprehension of scientific English. Students participating in the study were randomly assigned to "knowledge map" treatment, "underlining" treatment, or "control" group. Two measures of reading comprehension were used: open-ended questioning and summarizmg. Results showed that although both treatment groups outperformed the control group on open-ended questioning, the difference between the two treatment groups on this measure was not statistically significant. Both treatment groups outperformed the control group on summarization, with the knowledge map group performing significantly better. * Used for pre-and post-tests.
... Santos, J. 1987. 'The Effects of Teachers' Reading Aloud on the Second Language Lea... more ... Santos, J. 1987. 'The Effects of Teachers' Reading Aloud on the Second Language Learner's Reading Comprehension, Listening Compre-hension, and Attitude Towards Reading'. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Boston Univer-sity. Swaffer, J., M. Arens, and H. Byrnes. 1991. ...
Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2), 1992 711 The Effect of Story Grammar Instruction on EFL Stud... more Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2), 1992 711 The Effect of Story Grammar Instruction on EFL Students' Comprehension of Narrative Text Aly A. Amer Tanta University, Egypt Reading comprehension is an interactive process between the reader and the text. A recent area of research ...
Effective use of reading strategies has been recognized as an important means to increase reading... more Effective use of reading strategies has been recognized as an important means to increase reading comprehension. Many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) studies have produced lists of paper-reading strategies (eg having a purpose for ...
Kirby's theory of reading (1988) was used to investigate differences between English as a Fo... more Kirby's theory of reading (1988) was used to investigate differences between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at two levels of reading comprehension performance (ie, meaning memorization and meaning generation) with respect to their reading styles. Forty ...
Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in test-wiseness strategie... more Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in test-wiseness strategies and test-taking strategies used by test-takers in responding to test tasks. Although these strategies are extensively studied in L1 literature, they are noticeably neglected in EFL/ESL testing literature. The purpose of this article is to: a) highlight the difference between test-wiseness strategies and test-taking strategies, b) discuss taxonomies of test-wiseness and test-taking strategies in the general educational literature and language testing literature, c) highlight the pedagogic significance of test-wiseness, d) review related EFL/ESL literature, and e) bring out the importance of test-wiseness and test-taking strategies to EFL/ESL teachers, teacher trainers and curriculum designers. .
Literature has long been used as a source for reading materials in English as a first language (L... more Literature has long been used as a source for reading materials in English as a first language (L1). In recent years, there has been a growing interest in utilizing literature in second language (L2) classrooms. The present article assumes that using literature in L2 reading can have the same effect as in L1. Integrating literature into L2 learning can create a learning environment that will provide comprehensible input and a low affective filter. Literary texts may be used in both extensive and intensive reading. Use of different literary genres is discussed with a special focus on the benefits of using stories. Introduction According to Langer (1995, p. 5): “Literature plays a critical role in our life, often without our notice. It helps us to explore both ourselves and others, to define and redefine who we are, who we might become, and how the world might be...... In its best sense, literature is intellectually provocative as well as humanizing, allowing to use various angles of ...
There has been an increasing awareness of the significance of integrating literature in EFL/ESL c... more There has been an increasing awareness of the significance of integrating literature in EFL/ESL curriculum. T wo pedagogically effective approaches to teaching L1 narrative texts which have been gaining popularity in EFL/ESL literature are The Story Grammar and The Reader Response. The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and conceptualization underlying both approaches and how they are used in EFL/ESL classrooms.
In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She descri... more In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She described Chinese script as morphosyllabic, because each character represents both a syllable and a morpheme. To extract the exact meaning, the reader must distinguish between the morphemes of homophonic characters. For example, the syllable /shì/ corresponds with many morphemes or characters, such as yes, try, and room. Further, many Chinese compound words consist of two morphemes/ characters. For instance, the word television consists of the morphemes electric and vision. Thus, to learn to read Chinese successfully a child must understand to what extent and how the various characters represent syllables, morphemes, and words. Like in English language research, Shu reported that phonological awareness has been an important and well-studied topic in China. In this vein, Li, Anderson, Nagy, and Zhang (2002) developed a set of tests, which included such items as syllable reversion, onset deletion, and morpheme discrimination, to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and Chinese reading proficiency. From this, Li, Anderson, Nagy, and Zhang developed a path analysis model of first-and fourth-grade children's reading, which showed that morphological awareness and phonological awareness both contribute to reading proficiency. It is noteworthy that morphological awareness was found to be the most important factor in reading Chinese. Shu also reported that, like in other regions of the world, much research in Chinese reading has examined the possible effects of increasing the amount of time spent reading. For instance, Anderson et al. (2002) explored the possibility of increasing children's vocabulary, reading comprehension, and language and reading skills through a study they conducted using the Shared Book Approach (Holdaway, 1979). In this study, first-grade children learned to read two stories with 25 new characters. They were asked to pronounce the new characters immediately after training, and then again two and eight weeks later. The children's learning of the new characters was tested under three conditions: (a) characters in isolation, (b) characters in the context of a familiar word or phrase different from the sharedbook stories, and (c) characters in the context of a word or phrase from the sharedbook stories. The results showed that first graders correctly pronounced 71% of the new characters in isolation immediately after training, and pronounced 40% of the new characters in isolation eight weeks later. In related research, Wu, Li, and Shu (2002) confirmed the role of shared-book reading in character learning of first graders. They found that first-grade children were able to incidentally learn about 8% of the new characters from shared-book reading training.
In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She descri... more In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She described Chinese script as morphosyllabic, because each character represents both a syllable and a morpheme. To extract the exact meaning, the reader must distinguish ...
This article reports some outcomes of a large-scale work-in-progress project that aims to help En... more This article reports some outcomes of a large-scale work-in-progress project that aims to help English as Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers to use learner-centered methods of teaching. The particular focus is investigating the effect of EFL student teachers' participation in the Learner-centered Oriented English Teaching Methods Course on their cognition/theory-inaction. A metaphor elicitation instrument was designed for this purpose and administered at the beginning and at the end of the course. Participants comprised all student teachers enrolled in that course. Qualitative analysis of data revealed that EFL student teachers' metaphors implied a moderate change in their tacit belief about aspects of teaching. EFL student teachers' post course metaphors indicated that their theory-inaction has become more learner-centered and less teacher-led. This major finding is discussed and recommendations for EFL teacher education and teacher education research are made.
Revista electrónica de investigación psicoeducativa y psicopedagógica, Nov 2, 2017
In the application of the Original Bloom's taxonomy since its publication in 1956, several weakne... more In the application of the Original Bloom's taxonomy since its publication in 1956, several weaknesses and practical limitations have been revealed. Besides, psychological and educational research has witnessed the introduction of several theories and approaches to learning which make students more knowledgeable of and responsible for their own learning, cognition, and thinking. Hence, a group of researchers revised the Original taxonomy in order to overcome its weaknesses and to incorporate the recent developments. The purpose of the present article is to present a concise and critical review of both the Original and Revised taxonomy with reference to their underlying philosophy, rationale, structure and potential pedagogic uses.
The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in EFL learning has been increasingly recognized. Deve... more The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in EFL learning has been increasingly recognized. Developments in 'lexical semantics' have prompted the development of the 'semantic field theory', 'semantic networks', or 'semantic grid' strategies, which organize words in terms of interrelated lexical meanings. The purpose of the present article is to discuss the pedagogic implications of 'semantic field theory' to EFL vocabulary instruction.
This study investigated the effect of teaching a test-taking strategy to EFL students on their pe... more This study investigated the effect of teaching a test-taking strategy to EFL students on their performance on EFL tests. Eighty-two 7th-grade students participated in the study. The experimental group (n = 40) was taught the components of a test-taking strategy: to read the instructions carefully, to schedule their time appropriately, to make use of clue words in the questions, to delay answering difficult questions, and to review their work in order to check their answers. The results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group (n = 42). The findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between test-performance and skill in test-taking. The findings also suggest support for training EFL classroom teachers to provide instruction in test-taking strategy
This study was prompted by awareness of college students' difTiculties understanding scientific t... more This study was prompted by awareness of college students' difTiculties understanding scientific texts in English. To help students overcome these difliculties, the present researcher investigated the effect of using two reading study strategies (i.e., knowledge-map and underlining) on the students' reading comprehension of scientific English. Students participating in the study were randomly assigned to "knowledge map" treatment, "underlining" treatment, or "control" group. Two measures of reading comprehension were used: open-ended questioning and summarizmg. Results showed that although both treatment groups outperformed the control group on open-ended questioning, the difference between the two treatment groups on this measure was not statistically significant. Both treatment groups outperformed the control group on summarization, with the knowledge map group performing significantly better. * Used for pre-and post-tests.
... Santos, J. 1987. 'The Effects of Teachers' Reading Aloud on the Second Language Lea... more ... Santos, J. 1987. 'The Effects of Teachers' Reading Aloud on the Second Language Learner's Reading Comprehension, Listening Compre-hension, and Attitude Towards Reading'. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Boston Univer-sity. Swaffer, J., M. Arens, and H. Byrnes. 1991. ...
Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2), 1992 711 The Effect of Story Grammar Instruction on EFL Stud... more Reading in a Foreign Language, 8(2), 1992 711 The Effect of Story Grammar Instruction on EFL Students' Comprehension of Narrative Text Aly A. Amer Tanta University, Egypt Reading comprehension is an interactive process between the reader and the text. A recent area of research ...
Effective use of reading strategies has been recognized as an important means to increase reading... more Effective use of reading strategies has been recognized as an important means to increase reading comprehension. Many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) studies have produced lists of paper-reading strategies (eg having a purpose for ...
Kirby's theory of reading (1988) was used to investigate differences between English as a Fo... more Kirby's theory of reading (1988) was used to investigate differences between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at two levels of reading comprehension performance (ie, meaning memorization and meaning generation) with respect to their reading styles. Forty ...
Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in test-wiseness strategie... more Language testing research has recently witnessed an increased interest in test-wiseness strategies and test-taking strategies used by test-takers in responding to test tasks. Although these strategies are extensively studied in L1 literature, they are noticeably neglected in EFL/ESL testing literature. The purpose of this article is to: a) highlight the difference between test-wiseness strategies and test-taking strategies, b) discuss taxonomies of test-wiseness and test-taking strategies in the general educational literature and language testing literature, c) highlight the pedagogic significance of test-wiseness, d) review related EFL/ESL literature, and e) bring out the importance of test-wiseness and test-taking strategies to EFL/ESL teachers, teacher trainers and curriculum designers. .
Literature has long been used as a source for reading materials in English as a first language (L... more Literature has long been used as a source for reading materials in English as a first language (L1). In recent years, there has been a growing interest in utilizing literature in second language (L2) classrooms. The present article assumes that using literature in L2 reading can have the same effect as in L1. Integrating literature into L2 learning can create a learning environment that will provide comprehensible input and a low affective filter. Literary texts may be used in both extensive and intensive reading. Use of different literary genres is discussed with a special focus on the benefits of using stories. Introduction According to Langer (1995, p. 5): “Literature plays a critical role in our life, often without our notice. It helps us to explore both ourselves and others, to define and redefine who we are, who we might become, and how the world might be...... In its best sense, literature is intellectually provocative as well as humanizing, allowing to use various angles of ...
There has been an increasing awareness of the significance of integrating literature in EFL/ESL c... more There has been an increasing awareness of the significance of integrating literature in EFL/ESL curriculum. T wo pedagogically effective approaches to teaching L1 narrative texts which have been gaining popularity in EFL/ESL literature are The Story Grammar and The Reader Response. The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and conceptualization underlying both approaches and how they are used in EFL/ESL classrooms.
In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She descri... more In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She described Chinese script as morphosyllabic, because each character represents both a syllable and a morpheme. To extract the exact meaning, the reader must distinguish between the morphemes of homophonic characters. For example, the syllable /shì/ corresponds with many morphemes or characters, such as yes, try, and room. Further, many Chinese compound words consist of two morphemes/ characters. For instance, the word television consists of the morphemes electric and vision. Thus, to learn to read Chinese successfully a child must understand to what extent and how the various characters represent syllables, morphemes, and words. Like in English language research, Shu reported that phonological awareness has been an important and well-studied topic in China. In this vein, Li, Anderson, Nagy, and Zhang (2002) developed a set of tests, which included such items as syllable reversion, onset deletion, and morpheme discrimination, to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and Chinese reading proficiency. From this, Li, Anderson, Nagy, and Zhang developed a path analysis model of first-and fourth-grade children's reading, which showed that morphological awareness and phonological awareness both contribute to reading proficiency. It is noteworthy that morphological awareness was found to be the most important factor in reading Chinese. Shu also reported that, like in other regions of the world, much research in Chinese reading has examined the possible effects of increasing the amount of time spent reading. For instance, Anderson et al. (2002) explored the possibility of increasing children's vocabulary, reading comprehension, and language and reading skills through a study they conducted using the Shared Book Approach (Holdaway, 1979). In this study, first-grade children learned to read two stories with 25 new characters. They were asked to pronounce the new characters immediately after training, and then again two and eight weeks later. The children's learning of the new characters was tested under three conditions: (a) characters in isolation, (b) characters in the context of a familiar word or phrase different from the sharedbook stories, and (c) characters in the context of a word or phrase from the sharedbook stories. The results showed that first graders correctly pronounced 71% of the new characters in isolation immediately after training, and pronounced 40% of the new characters in isolation eight weeks later. In related research, Wu, Li, and Shu (2002) confirmed the role of shared-book reading in character learning of first graders. They found that first-grade children were able to incidentally learn about 8% of the new characters from shared-book reading training.
In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She descri... more In her report, Hua Shu covered several cognitive aspects of learning to read in China. She described Chinese script as morphosyllabic, because each character represents both a syllable and a morpheme. To extract the exact meaning, the reader must distinguish ...
This article reports some outcomes of a large-scale work-in-progress project that aims to help En... more This article reports some outcomes of a large-scale work-in-progress project that aims to help English as Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers to use learner-centered methods of teaching. The particular focus is investigating the effect of EFL student teachers' participation in the Learner-centered Oriented English Teaching Methods Course on their cognition/theory-inaction. A metaphor elicitation instrument was designed for this purpose and administered at the beginning and at the end of the course. Participants comprised all student teachers enrolled in that course. Qualitative analysis of data revealed that EFL student teachers' metaphors implied a moderate change in their tacit belief about aspects of teaching. EFL student teachers' post course metaphors indicated that their theory-inaction has become more learner-centered and less teacher-led. This major finding is discussed and recommendations for EFL teacher education and teacher education research are made.
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