Classroom instructions are greatly influenced by student motivation and attitudes toward the acti... more Classroom instructions are greatly influenced by student motivation and attitudes toward the activities employed during the teaching and learning processes, and pedagogy and assessment practices draw no exception. The study aimed to explore learners’ motivation and attitudes toward teachers’ employment of the practices focused on student-centered pedagogy and assessment in the EFL classroom. In addition, it correlated the participants’ responses with their gender and specialization. The descriptive-survey approach was used to achieve the study objectives. The study tools, a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview were applied to a stratified sample of 200 participants. The results showed that the study sample had high motivation and attitudes toward teachers’ employment of pedagogy and assessment practices focused on students. Besides, the variables of gender and specialization did not influence the respondents’ answers to the questionnaire. Finally, the analysis of the parti...
This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengt... more This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengthening English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical thinking skills. The increasing unemployment rates may not be due to insufficient vacancies in the labor market, but graduates’ lack of the general abilities deemed vital to meet the labor market needs. With employability in mind, this study reiterates that graduates should ideally be advanced specialists, critical researchers, creative initiators, and active communicators to be more competitive and contribute to the prosperity of their nation. Therefore, this research employs a quasi-experimental design (time series design) to investigate how effectively students’ critical thinking skills are enriched using a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram. Studies in this respect, regarding the Saudi EFL context, are limited. Therefore, this research employed a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram on learnin...
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Jul 29, 2018
This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study ... more This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study upholds that pedagogically, writing as a skill and not as an activity has to be taught. The study argues that most of these writing problems arise from pedagogical reasons and a fresh look is needed to find out the pedagogical solutions of common writing problems i.e. punctuation and capitalization, grammatical structure, and language use. To a greater extent, these problems are not limited only to the Preparatory Year (Najran University), involved in the study, but apply also to other teaching and learning levels as well. Thus, the study advocates that writing problems can be minimized if the students are taught writing as a skill by professional language practitioners in an environment where students not only engage themselves in writing activities but also enjoy and develop writing as a skill.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
National identity and culture are crucial concerns in the context of second language acquisition.... more National identity and culture are crucial concerns in the context of second language acquisition. This is because language plays a vital role in the formation of the same. Previous studies have shown that studying English encourages learners to adopt Anglo-American culture, as textbooks have prioritized the target culture at the expense of the local/source culture in language learning in which a balanced approach could have been instrumental in the context of international and multicultural interaction. In the Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) context, the cultural investigation of textbooks is a necessity as they are designed by educators from the target culture. Hence, the present study investigates the nature and extent of national identity and cultural representation in the Mega Goal textbook series. The investigation follows Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Data are analyzed using Byram’s model of the textual evaluation of cultural contents and f...
Comprehension is one of the most crucial factors contributing to acquiring a new language; theref... more Comprehension is one of the most crucial factors contributing to acquiring a new language; therefore, teachers must facilitate language comprehensibility using the best teaching practices to help learners understand the target language. This study aimed to identify tertiary EFL teachers’ practices for teaching language comprehensibility to assist in highlighting the comprehensibility practices tertiary EFL teachers employ to ensure that students understand, interact with, and use the English language. To identify the extent that the teachers employ language comprehensibility practices in an EFL context, the descriptive-correlational approach was employed. A closed-item questionnaire was administered to a sample of 65 teachers in Najran University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2021–2022. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v. 23) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that tertiary EFL teachers taught language comprehensibility very skillfully. Also, no s...
Secondary school graduates who pursue a university education should possess linguistic and person... more Secondary school graduates who pursue a university education should possess linguistic and personality attributes and other higher learning abilities. The lack of any of these traits may significantly impact students' future endeavors. This research aims to identify secondary school graduates’ attributes and their types; to discover any significant differences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions due to gender (male/female) years of teaching experience; to discover how linguistic and personality attributes contribute to Saudi secondary school graduates’ EFL learning success. It correlates the teachers' responses based on the type of linguistic and personality attributes, gender, and years of teaching experience. Furthermore, it reviews how linguistic and personality attributes would contribute to secondary school graduates’ EFL learning success. To achieve its objectives, the study applied a descriptive-survey approach, using a questionnaire and a sem...
Writing has been considered as one of the most creative discrete skills teaching and English as a... more Writing has been considered as one of the most creative discrete skills teaching and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) practitioners always regard it as a challenge. Many scholars explored EFL students’ writing problems through qualitative and quantitative studies and offered suggestions and recommendations to address the issues. However, they reserved their conclusions with a revisit on the efficacy of the desired results. This research, in a one group pre/post quasi experimental research context, suggests design thinking’s five-step strategy: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, a relatively less experimented approach, to enhance EFL students’ writing performance with special emphasis on Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling, Word-order, Tense, and Sentence-structure. The study sample consisted of 25 preparatory year students at Najran University who were taught paragraph writing using a five-step strategy based on the design thinking. The pre/post tests were conducte...
Assessment is a key component of the educational spectrum and engages teachers in evaluating stud... more Assessment is a key component of the educational spectrum and engages teachers in evaluating students’ performance through various methods. During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers employed various assessment methods through the online mode of teaching and learning; now, at the beginning of the end of the pandemic, teachers are back to practicing offline assessment methods. This study identifies English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of online versus offline assessment methods in higher education. Furthermore, it targets the best skill-wise assessment methods and constraints that teachers can use when applying EFL assessment methods in both online and offline learning modes. To achieve the study objectives, a descriptive-diagnostic approach was applied; the data were collected from 61 EFL teachers through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that EFL teachers perceive assessment methods in the online mode of learning as being of a medium...
Feedback has been vital and essential in all educational settings and English as a Foreign Langua... more Feedback has been vital and essential in all educational settings and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom interaction draws no distinction. It contributes to students' language learning and achievement. It, when involves learners during classroom interactions, becomes oral corrective feedback and has been viewed as a dynamic practice for EFL teachers to correct their learners’ mistakes on the spot. This study investigated teachers' oral corrective feedback practices in an online EFL classroom interactions context. Furthermore, it correlated teachers' responses with the type of oral corrective feedback, gender, and years of experience. To achieve the study objectives, the descriptive-correlational method was used. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were applied to a sample of 61 EFL teachers. The results of the questionnaire revealed that EFL teachers consistently practiced oral corrective feedback in online classroom interactions. Also, no signific...
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 2018
This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study ... more This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study upholds that pedagogically, writing as a skill and not as an activity has to be taught. The study argues that most of these writing problems arise from pedagogical reasons and a fresh look is needed to find out the pedagogical solutions of common writing problems i.e. punctuation and capitalization, grammatical structure, and language use. To a greater extent, these problems are not limited only to the Preparatory Year (Najran University), involved in the study, but apply also to other teaching and learning levels as well. Thus, the study advocates that writing problems can be minimized if the students are taught writing as a skill by professional language practitioners in an environment where students not only engage themselves in writing activities but also enjoy and develop writing as a skill.
In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rathe... more In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of need-based training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members’ needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used pre- and post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported needs. ...
World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues
The significance of this study is to improve the assessment quality of future online English as a... more The significance of this study is to improve the assessment quality of future online English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing tests through Blackboard, a learning management system (LMS), and to avert any potential inclusion of odd items. This study aims to examine the Blackboard (Bb) test quality at the Preparatory Year Program (PYP) in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) writing course using item analysis and a questionnaire of EFL teachers’ practices for constructing a good quality test. To achieve the study objectives, 30 objective-type questions from the final Technical Writing course examination, attempted by 97 level two preparatory year students, were analyzed to check three indices: difficulty index, discrimination index, and distractor efficiency. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to rate the EFL teachers’ (N=50) practices of constructing their technical writing test for the final examination in terms of good quality test norms. The item analysis has show...
This paper, in deviation from the traditional practices of textbook evaluation, reports the facul... more This paper, in deviation from the traditional practices of textbook evaluation, reports the faculty members’ evaluation of Cutting Edge, Student Book, KSA Third Edition Intermediate Level, by Sarah Cunningham & Peter Moor, published by Pearson 2013 in terms of Language Development Skills, in general, and, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Grammar & Vocabulary, and Style & Appropriacy in particular. 20 EFL teachers participated in this mixed method approach of study who work at the Department of English Skills, Preparatory Year, Najran University, Saudi Arabia. A google form questionnaire, consisted of 57 numerically rated items & open-ended questions under 7 domains, was created to elicit faculty members’ responses. The validity of the questionnaire was examined by a group of experts in the textbook evaluation and content analysis. The analysis indicates that the respondents evaluated the textbook contents positively and the majority viewed them mostly suitable in terms of lang...
In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rathe... more In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of need-based training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members' needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used pre-and post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported need...
Classroom instructions are greatly influenced by student motivation and attitudes toward the acti... more Classroom instructions are greatly influenced by student motivation and attitudes toward the activities employed during the teaching and learning processes, and pedagogy and assessment practices draw no exception. The study aimed to explore learners’ motivation and attitudes toward teachers’ employment of the practices focused on student-centered pedagogy and assessment in the EFL classroom. In addition, it correlated the participants’ responses with their gender and specialization. The descriptive-survey approach was used to achieve the study objectives. The study tools, a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview were applied to a stratified sample of 200 participants. The results showed that the study sample had high motivation and attitudes toward teachers’ employment of pedagogy and assessment practices focused on students. Besides, the variables of gender and specialization did not influence the respondents’ answers to the questionnaire. Finally, the analysis of the parti...
This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengt... more This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengthening English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical thinking skills. The increasing unemployment rates may not be due to insufficient vacancies in the labor market, but graduates’ lack of the general abilities deemed vital to meet the labor market needs. With employability in mind, this study reiterates that graduates should ideally be advanced specialists, critical researchers, creative initiators, and active communicators to be more competitive and contribute to the prosperity of their nation. Therefore, this research employs a quasi-experimental design (time series design) to investigate how effectively students’ critical thinking skills are enriched using a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram. Studies in this respect, regarding the Saudi EFL context, are limited. Therefore, this research employed a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram on learnin...
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Jul 29, 2018
This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study ... more This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study upholds that pedagogically, writing as a skill and not as an activity has to be taught. The study argues that most of these writing problems arise from pedagogical reasons and a fresh look is needed to find out the pedagogical solutions of common writing problems i.e. punctuation and capitalization, grammatical structure, and language use. To a greater extent, these problems are not limited only to the Preparatory Year (Najran University), involved in the study, but apply also to other teaching and learning levels as well. Thus, the study advocates that writing problems can be minimized if the students are taught writing as a skill by professional language practitioners in an environment where students not only engage themselves in writing activities but also enjoy and develop writing as a skill.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
National identity and culture are crucial concerns in the context of second language acquisition.... more National identity and culture are crucial concerns in the context of second language acquisition. This is because language plays a vital role in the formation of the same. Previous studies have shown that studying English encourages learners to adopt Anglo-American culture, as textbooks have prioritized the target culture at the expense of the local/source culture in language learning in which a balanced approach could have been instrumental in the context of international and multicultural interaction. In the Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) context, the cultural investigation of textbooks is a necessity as they are designed by educators from the target culture. Hence, the present study investigates the nature and extent of national identity and cultural representation in the Mega Goal textbook series. The investigation follows Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Data are analyzed using Byram’s model of the textual evaluation of cultural contents and f...
Comprehension is one of the most crucial factors contributing to acquiring a new language; theref... more Comprehension is one of the most crucial factors contributing to acquiring a new language; therefore, teachers must facilitate language comprehensibility using the best teaching practices to help learners understand the target language. This study aimed to identify tertiary EFL teachers’ practices for teaching language comprehensibility to assist in highlighting the comprehensibility practices tertiary EFL teachers employ to ensure that students understand, interact with, and use the English language. To identify the extent that the teachers employ language comprehensibility practices in an EFL context, the descriptive-correlational approach was employed. A closed-item questionnaire was administered to a sample of 65 teachers in Najran University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2021–2022. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v. 23) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that tertiary EFL teachers taught language comprehensibility very skillfully. Also, no s...
Secondary school graduates who pursue a university education should possess linguistic and person... more Secondary school graduates who pursue a university education should possess linguistic and personality attributes and other higher learning abilities. The lack of any of these traits may significantly impact students' future endeavors. This research aims to identify secondary school graduates’ attributes and their types; to discover any significant differences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions due to gender (male/female) years of teaching experience; to discover how linguistic and personality attributes contribute to Saudi secondary school graduates’ EFL learning success. It correlates the teachers' responses based on the type of linguistic and personality attributes, gender, and years of teaching experience. Furthermore, it reviews how linguistic and personality attributes would contribute to secondary school graduates’ EFL learning success. To achieve its objectives, the study applied a descriptive-survey approach, using a questionnaire and a sem...
Writing has been considered as one of the most creative discrete skills teaching and English as a... more Writing has been considered as one of the most creative discrete skills teaching and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) practitioners always regard it as a challenge. Many scholars explored EFL students’ writing problems through qualitative and quantitative studies and offered suggestions and recommendations to address the issues. However, they reserved their conclusions with a revisit on the efficacy of the desired results. This research, in a one group pre/post quasi experimental research context, suggests design thinking’s five-step strategy: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, a relatively less experimented approach, to enhance EFL students’ writing performance with special emphasis on Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling, Word-order, Tense, and Sentence-structure. The study sample consisted of 25 preparatory year students at Najran University who were taught paragraph writing using a five-step strategy based on the design thinking. The pre/post tests were conducte...
Assessment is a key component of the educational spectrum and engages teachers in evaluating stud... more Assessment is a key component of the educational spectrum and engages teachers in evaluating students’ performance through various methods. During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers employed various assessment methods through the online mode of teaching and learning; now, at the beginning of the end of the pandemic, teachers are back to practicing offline assessment methods. This study identifies English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of online versus offline assessment methods in higher education. Furthermore, it targets the best skill-wise assessment methods and constraints that teachers can use when applying EFL assessment methods in both online and offline learning modes. To achieve the study objectives, a descriptive-diagnostic approach was applied; the data were collected from 61 EFL teachers through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that EFL teachers perceive assessment methods in the online mode of learning as being of a medium...
Feedback has been vital and essential in all educational settings and English as a Foreign Langua... more Feedback has been vital and essential in all educational settings and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom interaction draws no distinction. It contributes to students' language learning and achievement. It, when involves learners during classroom interactions, becomes oral corrective feedback and has been viewed as a dynamic practice for EFL teachers to correct their learners’ mistakes on the spot. This study investigated teachers' oral corrective feedback practices in an online EFL classroom interactions context. Furthermore, it correlated teachers' responses with the type of oral corrective feedback, gender, and years of experience. To achieve the study objectives, the descriptive-correlational method was used. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were applied to a sample of 61 EFL teachers. The results of the questionnaire revealed that EFL teachers consistently practiced oral corrective feedback in online classroom interactions. Also, no signific...
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 2018
This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study ... more This study identifies and discusses some common writing problems among Saudi students. The study upholds that pedagogically, writing as a skill and not as an activity has to be taught. The study argues that most of these writing problems arise from pedagogical reasons and a fresh look is needed to find out the pedagogical solutions of common writing problems i.e. punctuation and capitalization, grammatical structure, and language use. To a greater extent, these problems are not limited only to the Preparatory Year (Najran University), involved in the study, but apply also to other teaching and learning levels as well. Thus, the study advocates that writing problems can be minimized if the students are taught writing as a skill by professional language practitioners in an environment where students not only engage themselves in writing activities but also enjoy and develop writing as a skill.
In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rathe... more In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of need-based training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members’ needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used pre- and post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported needs. ...
World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues
The significance of this study is to improve the assessment quality of future online English as a... more The significance of this study is to improve the assessment quality of future online English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing tests through Blackboard, a learning management system (LMS), and to avert any potential inclusion of odd items. This study aims to examine the Blackboard (Bb) test quality at the Preparatory Year Program (PYP) in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) writing course using item analysis and a questionnaire of EFL teachers’ practices for constructing a good quality test. To achieve the study objectives, 30 objective-type questions from the final Technical Writing course examination, attempted by 97 level two preparatory year students, were analyzed to check three indices: difficulty index, discrimination index, and distractor efficiency. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to rate the EFL teachers’ (N=50) practices of constructing their technical writing test for the final examination in terms of good quality test norms. The item analysis has show...
This paper, in deviation from the traditional practices of textbook evaluation, reports the facul... more This paper, in deviation from the traditional practices of textbook evaluation, reports the faculty members’ evaluation of Cutting Edge, Student Book, KSA Third Edition Intermediate Level, by Sarah Cunningham & Peter Moor, published by Pearson 2013 in terms of Language Development Skills, in general, and, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Grammar & Vocabulary, and Style & Appropriacy in particular. 20 EFL teachers participated in this mixed method approach of study who work at the Department of English Skills, Preparatory Year, Najran University, Saudi Arabia. A google form questionnaire, consisted of 57 numerically rated items & open-ended questions under 7 domains, was created to elicit faculty members’ responses. The validity of the questionnaire was examined by a group of experts in the textbook evaluation and content analysis. The analysis indicates that the respondents evaluated the textbook contents positively and the majority viewed them mostly suitable in terms of lang...
In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rathe... more In Saudi higher education, assessment has shifted to incorporate intended learning outcomes rather than merely textbook content. Subsequently, faculty members unwillingly participate in high-stakes competitive and harmonized assessment in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses during the preparatory year (PY). These challenges emphasize the importance of need-based training for faculty members. Accordingly, this context-specific study scrutinized faculty members' needs as well as the impact of a training program on engaging the participants and on fostering language assessment skills (LASs) among them. In so doing, an action research design used pre-and post-questionnaires and included a training portfolio to collect data from 31 faculty members. The study first identified those needs as instructional skills, design skills, and educational measurement skills. In the context of professional development, the researchers designed a training program based on those reported need...
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