رسائل الماجستير اللغات الأجنبية
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Item RETENTION AND ATTRITION IN EFL VOCABULARY LEARNING(University of Algiers 2. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2013) Tihal, Wafia; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)The present descriptive and exploratory study aims to explore the effectiveness of Vocabulary Learning Strategies used by final year school students and to test their retention of the target words thereby measuring their vocabulary size. It is based on the works of Oxford (1990) and Schmitt (1997). A vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire adapted from Schmitt’s (1997) taxonomy was used to gather data on the students’ use of five identified Vocabulary Learning strategies : Determination (DET), Social (SOC), Memory (MEM), Cognitive (COG) and Metacognitive (MET) strategies . A Vocabulary Achievement test was used to evaluate their word retention . A questionnaire to teachers was designed to elicit their attitude towards vocabulary teaching and the recall strategies taught for long term vocabulary retention. The results demonstrate that: 1. ‘Shallow’ strategies ( ‘taking notes’, ‘guessing from context’ and ‘asking classmates’) did not cause retention as they did not require manipulation of vocabulary . 2. At a receptive level, students used ‘bilingual dictionary’, ‘guessing from context’ and ’asking classmates’ strategies to comprehend the meaning of unknown words. 3. At a productive level , ‘discovery’ strategies were used. Students avoided strategies involving deep mental processing(such as Keyword Method, Semantic Mapping and Spaced Word Practice )and used strategies which cause attrition. 4. Teachers did not use efficient strategies to help their students increase their word retention. Finally, proposals were made for teachers to improve vocabulary retention in EFL secondary school students.Item Investigating the Use of the Relative Clause by Second Year Students of English in the English(University of Algiers 2. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2013) Kasbadji Lahoubi, Soraya; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)The present research tries to investigate the use of the relative clause by twenty-one second year students of English (EFL) at the University of Algiers 2. After several years of teaching this grammatical structure to second year students of the English degree course, I have observed that students have problems using the relative clause, specially the pronouns WHO, WHICH, THAT, WHOM, the possessive WHOSE and the after prepositions such as OF WHICH, WITHOUT WHOM, FOR WHOM. One of the reasons for their difficulties in learning this complex grammatical structure may be the influence of their L1, Arabic. L1 influence has been reported on the acquisition of relative clauses (Lightbown and Spada 2006). And for learners whose L1 does not have a particular clause type such as object of comparison (for example, The person that Susan is taller than is Mary) it is more difficult to use that clause type in English. Thus, Arabic speakers often produce the relative marker and the pronoun it replaces as they do in their own language (for example, The man who I saw him was very angry,), which is quite confusing. This study deals with second year students’ use of the relative clause and tries to identify their problems and to suggest possible solutions. Grammar tests with exercises on the relative clause followed by a questionnaire on the test were given to twenty one of these students. The data from both research instruments were analyzed, as well as the students’ errors made in the tests. The findings are quite interesting and reveal that many but not all the errors are due to L1 (Arabic) interference. The students have demonstrated three main types of problems related to the relative clause: vi - Misuse of the relative pronouns (who, which, whom, that) and of the pronouns they replace ( it, they, him…etc.) - Misuse of the possessive WHOSE and the after-preposition relatives such as OF WHOM and FOR WHICH. - Misplacement of the relative clause in the sentence. The study ends with some suggestions of activities that may improve the students’ understanding of the meaning of sentences containing the relative clause and their use of this somewhat problematic grammatical structure.Item The Impact of Listening Comprehension Strategy Training on First Year English Students’ Listening Ability(University of Algiers 2. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2012) Khelifa, Mahammed; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)This study was motivated by the weak results the students of English in the University of Blida have achieved over the last fifteen years. Teachers and administrators alike believe students’ weaknesses are mainly due to their non- effective listening strategies in the listening module, which is key to understanding Academic English needed for their university studies. It was important to understand the students’ listening difficulties and to see if a Training Programme involving Strategy- Based Listening Tasks can improve the students’ listening ability. Therefore, a pre- test (Oxford Placement Listening Test) was administered to a sample class of sixty- four first year students to determine their proficiency level. When it was corrected, only thirty students were singled out and divided into an experimental group and a control group of 15 students each. Both groups were administered a 22 item- questionnaire to identify their listening comprehension problems and their listening strategies. The Experimental Group received Listening Comprehension Strategy Training for twelve weeks. The Programme consisted of strategy- based teaching which developed strategies centred on a framework suggested by Brown (1990: 148). During this time, the control group attended the regular listening sessions with no treatment. To triangulate the results, a semi structuredinterview was carried out with the teachers of the module. After the Training Programme, both groups were given a post- test based on IELTS format. The results revealed that the scores of the Experimental Group were higher than those of the Control Group. They had a significantly higher level of listening proficiency and used more strategies, e.g., listening for key words, inferring and listening for gist than they did before Listening Comprehension Strategy Training. However, no significant difference was found in the use of non- verbal cues and asking for clarification strategies. On the other hand, the Control Group used listening comprehension strategies equally before and after the training, except for predicting and note-taking strategies. Based on these findings, it was suggested that listening teachers should be made aware of strategy- based listening tasks and develop materials based on these results.Item Investigating EFL Students’ Feedback-Handling Strategies in Argumentative Essay Writing(University of Algiers 2. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2012) Setrallah, Ahlem; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)Teachers of writing spend considerable time and effort providing students with feedback, hoping that this will help reduce the number of students' mistakes and improve their writing performance. However, they can feel quite disappointed when they realize that their feedback is ignored or does not result in better drafts especially in process writing tasks. Studies done in the field of response to students' writing ( Diab, 2005; Ferris, 1995; Leki, 1991; and Cohen,1987) )demonstrated the importance of feedback for writing in an academic context and the mismatch between teachers' expectations of feedback and students' reaction to it. This study investigates how second year university students of English react to teacher written feedback (TWF),what problems they face dealing with it and what strategies they use to handle it and solve the problems it poses. Three research instruments were utilized to collect data from a sample of six students: questionnaires, content analysis of students' drafts and interviews. The analysis of the results revealed that all six students have a positive attitude to TWF. They found it motivating and tried to take it into consideration whenever they revised their drafts because it seemed to help them improve their writing. However, they all faced problems dealing with illegible teacher's handwriting and unclear comments and symbols. Finally, even when they managed to decode teacher's feedback correctly, many of them did not know how to use this feedback to improve their second and final drafts. The findings of this study showed that the subjects used a number of feedback handling strategies. The latter were classified into three main categories: " Meta-cognitive strategies: making a mental note, relating TWF to previous knowledge about language, and deciding on which mistakes to correct and which to ignore. " Cognitive strategies: reading TWF several times, using a dictionary/grammar book, and replacing the wrong word/verb by a synonym. " Social-affective strategies: asking for the teacher's help or a peer/friend help. The present study emphasizes that students need to be trained on how to use TWF effectively when writing the second drafts of their essays. In addition, they should be actively engaged in feedback provision. Furthermore teachers should take into account students' needs and preferences, negotiate feedback with them in terms of purpose, the way it is presented and how it can best be used to improve their writing.Item Evaluation of the teaching competencies of english teachers in Jordan from multiple perspectives(2012) Alhishoush, Mohammad M.; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)The study aimed at evaluating the current situation of the teaching competencies of secondary English teachers in Jordan by showing multiple perspectives, namely the students', the English supervisors' and those of the teachers themselves. Moreover, the researcher analyzed the content of the training materials of a number of teacher training programs offered by the Ministry of Education during the last 15 years for evidence of the teaching competencies that secondary English teachers actually need. A number of instruments were used for data collection that included 3 questionnaires, interviews with experienced teachers (teachers and supervisors) and training program content analysis table. The three questionnaires and the content analysis table consisted of 40 essential specialized teaching competencies for English language teachers. These competencies were in 4 categories: " Subject knowledge and proficiency based competencies: Items 1 -12 " Cultural knowledge competencies: Items 13 - 18 " Teacher/ students relationship competencies: Items 19 - 24 " Instructional competencies: Items 25 - 40 The interview, on the other hand, consisted of one question in which the interviewees were asked to suggest a number of teaching competencies that they consider necessary or important for secondary English teachers in Jordan. The results of the study have shown the following: " The teachers' rating of their teaching competencies was very high in most of the teaching competencies except in 'cultural competencies' which were rated clearly lower than the rest of competencies. " The teachers' rating of their teaching competencies did not change according to their sex, qualifications or teaching experience for most competencies, though significant differences were found at the level of ? ? .05 between the males and the females in favor of the 'females' in 'instructional competencies', and in favor of the longest experience' for 'cultural competencies'. " The students' rating of the teaching competencies of their teachers was relatively low in 2 areas when compared to their teachers' perceptions of their teaching competencies, namely 'instructional competencies' and 'cultural competencies'. " The students rating did not change according to their sex except for 'cultural competencies' where significant differences were recognized in favor of the males. " The supervisors rating of the teaching competencies of the teachers was clearly low in the four categories when compared to the teachers' own rating of their teaching competencies, regardless of the sex of these supervisors, their qualifications or their experience. " The results of the interviews with experienced teachers emphasized 24 teaching competencies as most important for English teachers in Jordan. The most frequently selected competencies of these were 'teaching speaking skills', 'teaching writing skills', and 'classroom management'. " The results of the content analysis of the training programs were consistent with those appearing in the other questions where 2 categories, namely 'cultural competencies' and 'subject knowledge competencies', were clearly lower than the rest of competencies. This indicates that the training programs offered to teachers need to provide more materials that can help teachers in these two areas. In general, the results of the study have shown that teachers need help in a number of teaching competencies. Therefore, the study suggests a new model based on the findings of the study which can be a core of future training program for English teachers in Jordan as well as for assessing their performance.Item The Apprenticeship of leadership in EFL secondary classroom(University of Algiers 2 - Faculty of Arts Languages, 2012-06) Hachelaf, Ahmed Abdelhakim; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)This study was conducted in order to investigate what leadership characteristics Algerian secondary school teachers of English demonstrate, and how leadership is distributed in their classrooms. It tries also to shed light on the factors that may enable or constrain such an endeavour. This mixed method study investigates the distributed leadership by gauging the directness/ indirectness of influence exercised by four EFL teachers using the FIA (Flanders' Interaction Analysis). It was triangulated by gauging the perceptions of eighty students of these observed teachers using the questionnaire instrument and interviewing the observed teachers to obtain their self-perceptions on leadership. Both qualitative and quantitative data revealed that the Algerian EFL teachers demonstrate some leadership skills but lack many of the concepts and components of participatory leadership such as cooperation and shared decision making. Although survey findings indicate that students generally consider their teachers as role models, their views and perceptions reveal that teachers tend to maintain control over many of the decisions and dominate in their classrooms. Data from the observation procedure reveal that the most recurrent practice teachers do is lecturing. They exercise direct rather than indirect influence. Interviews revealed that teachers tend to consider themselves as democratic leaders and open to dialogue, the fact that is not always reflected in their behaviours. Undoubtedly, teachers need to develop as leaders and pass on leadership skills to their learners in order to empower them to become autonomous leaders who lead successful and productive lives.