Search

It is inevitable that learners make mistakes in the process of learning a foreign language. Despite this fact, what is questioned by language teachers is why students go on making the same mistakes even when such mistakes have been repeatedly pointed out to them. Yet, not all mistakes are the same and sometimes they seem deeply ingrained, but at other time students correct themselves with ease. Thus, researchers and teachers of foreign language delineate the fact that students’ errors, while being in the process of constructing a new system of language, should be carefully understood in the process of second language acquisition. This study intends to identify whether any significant differences exist between traditional method of feedback and constructive feedback process to endorse this critical process of rectification as a part of the teachers’ job. The researchers highlight this phenomenon at a juncture of time when there is a growing concern about the deplorable conditions of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Pakistan. Regardless of the fact that EFL teachers in Pakistan have an extensive experience of teaching English, the high failure percentage along with the sub-standard feedback processes are annoying everyone concerned. In this study, causes of poor writing are explored while targeting upon the constructive feedback (hereinafter CFB) through the error analysis system (EAS). For this specified purpose, the researchers used experimental research design to find out the reasons of poor writing of participants at Secondary School Level. This article determined the significance of CFB through EAS and proved that writing errors of the students could be minimized by the proper employment of CFB. Henceforth, in the light of the research findings, emphasis is given on recommendations for all the stakeholders.

It is reported that language learning is a creative and dynamic process and the learners are active partners in this process. This trend in language teaching motivated the researchers to investigate the learners' individual differences and the identification of language learning strategies (LLS) has become a major area of interest in this regard because it is suggested that language learners consciously or unconsciously employ different LLS. This research study investigated LLS used by Saudi English-major undergraduates by using SILL version7. Paired Samples t-test was applied to see if significant differences exist as a result of their GPA differences. The informants of this study were 240 English-major undergraduates (low GPA, 106 & high GPA, 134) enrolled at foreign languages department Taif university. Results reported that the participants with high English language proficiency use language learning strategies more frequently. The participants ranked the metacognitive strategies the highest as compared to other LLS followed by social and cognitive LLS respectively. Among the remaining three categories of LLS, compensation and affective strategies showed mixed preferences but memory strategies were assigned the least mean values by both sample groups. Considering the fact that frequency of LLS usage and English language proficiency are positively linked to each other, it is concluded that it seems necessary to teach language learning strategies explicitly so that even the weaker students should be able to enhance English language proficiency by exploiting a wide range of suitable strategies that are appropriate to different classroom activities and learners' L2 experience.

Technology-based initiatives have transformed the process of teaching and learning activities at formal institutions generally and distance education institutions particularly. Distance education is at the heart of the digital age making maximum use of the emerging technologies. Researchers have favoured computer mediated communications (CMC) for improving the quality of teacher education in developing countries by providing access to more and better educational resources. The researchers designed a CMC-ELT blended model and offered online English language teacher education courses at post-graduate level. A group of students enrolled in MA TEFL programme of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Islamabad Pakistan, was selected randomly and was guided through CMC-ELT blended model. The results of the study showed that the online support in distance education enhanced students’ performance in terms of access, interaction and cost. The effective use of online support in distance education can improve the quality of English language teaching programmes in Pakistan.