An Evaluation of EFL Students’ Attitudes toward English Language Learning In Terms of Several Variables (Published)
The present study sheds light on the attitudes of Al-Balqa Applied University students towards learning English as a foreign language. The study also investigated the effect of the learners’ gender and field of study on the attitudes they hold. The random sample of 176 students consisted of 68 (38.6%) males and 108 (61.4%) females. 67 (38.1%) of the respondents were majoring in the scientific faculties, and 109 (61.9%) were enrolled in the different faculties of humanities. The descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that the sample students held positive attitudes towards learning English. Gender was found to be an effective variable since females proved to be more positive in their attitudes. No differences were assigned to the students’ academic field of study.
Keywords: English, Field of study, Foreign Language, Gender, attitude
Prosodic Training Benefit for Farsi-English Interpreter Trainees: Does Gender Matter? (Published)
This study investigates the effect of gender on the quality of interpreting by 30 Iranian BA students of English translation and interpreting. In the experiment, the control group (7 males, 8 females) received the routine instruction of the interpreting curriculum. The experimental group (7 males, 8 females) spent less time on the routine syllabus and instead received explanation of prosodic concepts and did prosodic exercises as participants in the two groups were matched on the basis of their scores on a pre-test of general English proficiency. Interpreting performance was assessed in a post-test by having three experts rate ten aspects of interpreting quality. Then, t-tests were run on the male and female subsamples to see whether gender affects the performance of participants in the pre- and posttest and in the difference between the two test scores. There is a slight (but statistically insignificant) advantage for women both in the pre-test (8 points better on average on the scale from 0 to 700,) and in the post-test (3 percentage points, but again insignificant). These results have implications for designers of curricula for training interpreters, material producers and all who are involved in foreign-language study and pedagogy
Keywords: Consecutive Interpreting, Gender, Interpretation, foreign language learning
Xenophobia in Iraqi EFL Learning Context (Published)
This study is an attempt to investigate Iraqi EEL learners’ conception of xenophobia and whether it has a negative effect on their learning English as a foreign language. The study hypothesizes that: (1) it is fair to speculate that xenophobia has been at least partially responsible for hindering deep-level learning and students who undergo xenophobia are likely to be pessimistic as regards the foreign language, (2) learners’ attitudes toward English as a foreign language differs depending on whether they are rural or urban, (3) the disposition of female learners towards the term xenophobia differs in comparison to that of male learners. To this end, a questionnaire is administered to 50 Iraqi undergraduate EFL learners at the University of Babylon/College of Education for Human Sciences/Department of English during the academic year (2016-2017) by which students were asked to report on their perception and interpretation of the term xenophobia.
Keywords: EFL Learners’, Gender, Rural, Urban, xenophobia