New World Competencies
Critical Thinking and Interculturality: A Discourse Analysis of Artistic Representations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Luís Fernando Pacheco Pérez
Language and culture are naturally bound. As language is the mean of exhibiting the culture, and culture is the origin of language, they must always be set together for a meaningful communication process in which interculturality is an all-time present trait. To achieve a successful language development, L2 learners require awareness in the different cultural patterns within the target language, as this permits to further comprehend the pragmatic phenomena of communication happening. Globally, artistic representations display a vast horizon of opportunities to get understanding of the world closer to our cognitive goals; music, films, theater, literature among other art forms bring discourse with genuine and visceral cultural features both implicit and explicit. Departing from Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the opportunity to employ a critical view of artistic representations containing cultural context creates a perfect scenario to exhibit the real world into the pedagogical encounter. Thus, language development finds a vivid chance of becoming cognitive thriving in diverse dimensions of human thinking inside the academy.
Information Skill Teaching through Experiential Learning: Praxis Oriented Self-regulated Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Farah Naz, Malik Muhammad Wali Awan, Amna Yousaf
Information skill is known as metacognitive ability. It is considered as ability to understand the need of information, ways and sources to attain that information. It is kind of skill which is considered as mandatory attribute to be developed in individuals now a days. In this era of target specific education, students are thought to learn this kind of skill to compete in challenging professional life. This skill can be learned through directly engaging students with the information. Experiential learning theory places experience at the center of learning. Kolb’s four-stage cycle of experiential learning suggests that effective learners must engage fully in each stage of the cycle – feeling, reflection, thinking, and action. Students are assumed to be equipped with this modern skill. Main purpose of this study is to evaluate this skill in prospective teachers. The study will be mixed method approach. Data will be collected from the prospective teachers. Results of the study will be helpful the teacher educators to teach this skill in more effective way.
Effects of Extensive Reading on Students’ Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Acquisition, Attitude and Motivation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna Nirmala M Kulasingam
The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension of learners and the learners' vocabulary acquisition of texts. Also, to study the effects of extensive reading on the learners' attitude to reading and their motivation to learn English. The subjects were 89 Form Four students from a school in Malaysia. The study employed a Solomon Three-Group Design, using 31 students as the experimental group and 58 students as the control groups. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the data collection to consolidate the findings. Descriptive statistics for the reading comprehension and vocabulary gains in the pretest and posttest were reported, followed by testing of the research hypotheses, using Analysis of Variance Procedure (ANOVA, SPSS 20.0). Then, questionnaires on the learners’ attitudes to the Extensive Reading Programme and motivation towards learning English were given to the second control group and experimental group after the treatment. Then, parametric tests, Paired t-tests was run by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for both domains to determine any significant difference between groups in their attitudes towards Extensive Reading and their motivation for learning English. From the results of the study, there was a significant difference between the three groups in the reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition posttest scores. This shows that the participants displayed positive gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. Participants show also positive attitudes toward Extensive Reading and learning English and have both instrumental and integrative motivation for learning the language.
