Haytham M . Badr | The British University in Dubai (original) (raw)

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Papers by Haytham M . Badr

Research paper thumbnail of Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the UAE Twelfth Grade Students’ Language Instructional Material Based on the Set Goals and Objectives

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2019

Textbook is in the heart of any language teaching and learning program as it relieves some pressu... more Textbook is in the heart of any language teaching and learning program as it relieves some pressure placed on teachers’ shoulders, provides students with a sense of progress and cohesion as well as providing education systems with the main structure by which they work and function. Therefore, great attention is paid to this critical area of research by syllabi developers and designers in addition to educationalists, scholars and researchers as a way to improve second language teaching and learning. One of main areas that concerns with the development of textbooks is to evaluate such textbooks to meet students’ needs in accordance with the intended goals and objectives. The current research focuses on evaluating the UAE twelfth grade students’ language textbook to check its compatibility, in terms of layout, topic and design, with the goals and objectives as set by the UAE educational process’s decision makers. Some recommendations for the effective use of the current instructional m...

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring UAE Teachers’ Attitude towards the Successful Implementation of the General Rules in the "School for All" Initiative

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2019

The UAE federal law no. 29 of 2006 was a major step towards the recognition of the right of peopl... more The UAE federal law no. 29 of 2006 was a major step towards the recognition of the right of people with disabilities to receive the same educational, healthcare and recreational services among other services as received by their non-disabled ones. This new trend was later emphasized by the UAE Ministry of Education through some initiatives including the "School for All" initiative which was launched in 2010. This initiative set the general rules for the successful implementation of inclusion in the UAE context. The present study aimed at investigating the implementation of these rules from teachers' perspectives as a precursor of the successful inclusion in the UAE context. To do so, a questionnaire in the form of open-ended and close-ended questions was given out to all teachers of the investigated research site, totaling 194 teachers. However, only 77 teachers responded to the questionnaire, and then formed the main sample of the current study. The results revealed t...

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluating the Significance of the UAE 12th Grade Language Instructional Material in Motivating Students to Achieve the Intended Goals Based on the Content-Based Approach

Journal of Education and Practice, 2018

This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility ... more This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility with the adopted approach and suitability for students’ educational and cognitive levels in order to ascertain whether the present material motivates students to learn or not. The results of the current studies show that the current material is well-designed using the content-based approach to enhance students’ learning of the four basic language skills, highlighting some benefits to sustain and some drawbacks to improve, along with some useful recommendations for future research. Keywords : content-based approach, theme-based model, CALP, BICS.

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Impact of Classroom Interactional Discourse on Preparatory Students’ Oral Production of the Target Language

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2019

The current qualitative study aims at discovering the classroom interactional discourse of an Eng... more The current qualitative study aims at discovering the classroom interactional discourse of an English grammar lesson for students at a preparatory level and its impact on students’ oral production of the target language. The ethnographic observation method is employed and a high quality audio-tape recorder is used to gather and analyse the research data. The findings indicate that the “initiation- response- feedback” (IRF) structure is a predominant element during the classroom interactional discourse, and students’ poor oral production during the classroom spoken discourse, as revealed by this study, is attributed to the negative impact of this element among other factors such as the type of teachers’ questions and students’ responses. The study provides some recommendations about the best instructional practices that can be used in the classroom to enhance students’ richer oral production of the target language.

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the Influence of Two Memory Strategies on Long-Term Vocabulary Retention: Semantic Mapping versus Wordlists

The author has also granted permission to the University to keep or make a digital copy for simil... more The author has also granted permission to the University to keep or make a digital copy for similar use and for the purpose of preservation of the work digitally. Multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author, the Registrar or the Dean of Education only. Copying for financial gain shall only be allowed with the author's express permission.

Research paper thumbnail of Semantic Mapping or Rote Memorisation: Which Strategy Is More Effective for Students’ Acquisition and Memorization of L2 Vocabulary?

Journal of Education and Learning

The present paper aimed to compare the influence of two vocabulary teaching strategies on student... more The present paper aimed to compare the influence of two vocabulary teaching strategies on students’ vocabulary retention—roughly used in this paper to refer to the process of acquisition and memorisation. In particular, the strategies of semantic mapping and rote memorisation were compared and contrasted within a trail of evidence-based data gathered systematically from two ESL classes in an international school in the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The participants of the study were 30 male students who were in grade 12, the last stage of high school in the UAE educational system. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. In order to measure the impact of the two strategies under investigation on the students’ vocabulary retention, the two groups sat for a pre-test and a posttest. The intervention that took place between the two tests lasted for three weeks. The results showed that the...

Research paper thumbnail of The influence of two memory strategies on long-term vocabulary' retention: semantic mapping versus wordlists

The British University in Dubai, 2017

Semantic mapping is the study of lexical items by creating a relationship between the target word... more Semantic mapping is the study of lexical items by creating a relationship between the target words and some inter-related words using visuals in the form of maps or graphs, while wordlists are the study of lexical items in lists and sentences by explaining the meaning of the new words in the target language, English. The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of semantic mapping and wordlists on students’ development and retention of L2 vocabulary. The researcher at the outset of the experiment hypothesizes that the students instructed in semantic mapping outperform those who employ wordlists. This is as a result of the network built in students’ mental lexicon and the visual aids used in L2 vocabulary teaching.
To test the hypothesis of the research, four ESL classes from two different research sites forming a total of 60 participants, 10th graders, were randomly chosen as the main sample of this research. Also, the four ESL classes were randomly divided into two control groups and two experimental groups. After that, a pre-test in a multiple-choice format was run to ascertain whether the participants have the same low level of the target words prior to the experiment to assure their homogeneity. The target words, forty words, were selected by the class teachers from the 10th graders’ course book and then used by the researcher for the purpose of conducting the research experiment.
Six weeks later, the same test was re-administered but with the content of the test re-organized to measure participants’ development and retention of the target words at the end of the experiment. Another test, a delayed post-test, was administered three days after the post-test to enhance the reliability of the research tools and results. The results revealed a big difference in participants’ knowledge level of the target words before and after the experiment, and this difference was statistically significant for the participants who employed semantic mapping strategy.

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluating the Significance of the UAE 12 th Grade Language Instructional Material in Motivating Students to Achieve the Intended Goals Based on the Content-Based Approach

Journal of Education and Practice, 2018

This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility ... more This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility with the adopted approach and suitability for students' educational and cognitive levels in order to ascertain whether the present material motivates students to learn or not. The results of the current studies show that the current material is well-designed using the content-based approach to enhance students' learning of the four basic language skills, highlighting some benefits to sustain and some drawbacks to improve, along with some useful recommendations for future research.

Research paper thumbnail of Critical Analysis and Evaluation of the UAE Twelfth Grade Students’ Language Instructional Material Based on the Set Goals and Objectives

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2019

Textbook is in the heart of any language teaching and learning program as it relieves some pressu... more Textbook is in the heart of any language teaching and learning program as it relieves some pressure placed on teachers’ shoulders, provides students with a sense of progress and cohesion as well as providing education systems with the main structure by which they work and function. Therefore, great attention is paid to this critical area of research by syllabi developers and designers in addition to educationalists, scholars and researchers as a way to improve second language teaching and learning. One of main areas that concerns with the development of textbooks is to evaluate such textbooks to meet students’ needs in accordance with the intended goals and objectives. The current research focuses on evaluating the UAE twelfth grade students’ language textbook to check its compatibility, in terms of layout, topic and design, with the goals and objectives as set by the UAE educational process’s decision makers. Some recommendations for the effective use of the current instructional m...

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring UAE Teachers’ Attitude towards the Successful Implementation of the General Rules in the "School for All" Initiative

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2019

The UAE federal law no. 29 of 2006 was a major step towards the recognition of the right of peopl... more The UAE federal law no. 29 of 2006 was a major step towards the recognition of the right of people with disabilities to receive the same educational, healthcare and recreational services among other services as received by their non-disabled ones. This new trend was later emphasized by the UAE Ministry of Education through some initiatives including the "School for All" initiative which was launched in 2010. This initiative set the general rules for the successful implementation of inclusion in the UAE context. The present study aimed at investigating the implementation of these rules from teachers' perspectives as a precursor of the successful inclusion in the UAE context. To do so, a questionnaire in the form of open-ended and close-ended questions was given out to all teachers of the investigated research site, totaling 194 teachers. However, only 77 teachers responded to the questionnaire, and then formed the main sample of the current study. The results revealed t...

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluating the Significance of the UAE 12th Grade Language Instructional Material in Motivating Students to Achieve the Intended Goals Based on the Content-Based Approach

Journal of Education and Practice, 2018

This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility ... more This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility with the adopted approach and suitability for students’ educational and cognitive levels in order to ascertain whether the present material motivates students to learn or not. The results of the current studies show that the current material is well-designed using the content-based approach to enhance students’ learning of the four basic language skills, highlighting some benefits to sustain and some drawbacks to improve, along with some useful recommendations for future research. Keywords : content-based approach, theme-based model, CALP, BICS.

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Impact of Classroom Interactional Discourse on Preparatory Students’ Oral Production of the Target Language

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2019

The current qualitative study aims at discovering the classroom interactional discourse of an Eng... more The current qualitative study aims at discovering the classroom interactional discourse of an English grammar lesson for students at a preparatory level and its impact on students’ oral production of the target language. The ethnographic observation method is employed and a high quality audio-tape recorder is used to gather and analyse the research data. The findings indicate that the “initiation- response- feedback” (IRF) structure is a predominant element during the classroom interactional discourse, and students’ poor oral production during the classroom spoken discourse, as revealed by this study, is attributed to the negative impact of this element among other factors such as the type of teachers’ questions and students’ responses. The study provides some recommendations about the best instructional practices that can be used in the classroom to enhance students’ richer oral production of the target language.

Research paper thumbnail of Investigating the Influence of Two Memory Strategies on Long-Term Vocabulary Retention: Semantic Mapping versus Wordlists

The author has also granted permission to the University to keep or make a digital copy for simil... more The author has also granted permission to the University to keep or make a digital copy for similar use and for the purpose of preservation of the work digitally. Multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author, the Registrar or the Dean of Education only. Copying for financial gain shall only be allowed with the author's express permission.

Research paper thumbnail of Semantic Mapping or Rote Memorisation: Which Strategy Is More Effective for Students’ Acquisition and Memorization of L2 Vocabulary?

Journal of Education and Learning

The present paper aimed to compare the influence of two vocabulary teaching strategies on student... more The present paper aimed to compare the influence of two vocabulary teaching strategies on students’ vocabulary retention—roughly used in this paper to refer to the process of acquisition and memorisation. In particular, the strategies of semantic mapping and rote memorisation were compared and contrasted within a trail of evidence-based data gathered systematically from two ESL classes in an international school in the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The participants of the study were 30 male students who were in grade 12, the last stage of high school in the UAE educational system. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. In order to measure the impact of the two strategies under investigation on the students’ vocabulary retention, the two groups sat for a pre-test and a posttest. The intervention that took place between the two tests lasted for three weeks. The results showed that the...

Research paper thumbnail of The influence of two memory strategies on long-term vocabulary' retention: semantic mapping versus wordlists

The British University in Dubai, 2017

Semantic mapping is the study of lexical items by creating a relationship between the target word... more Semantic mapping is the study of lexical items by creating a relationship between the target words and some inter-related words using visuals in the form of maps or graphs, while wordlists are the study of lexical items in lists and sentences by explaining the meaning of the new words in the target language, English. The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of semantic mapping and wordlists on students’ development and retention of L2 vocabulary. The researcher at the outset of the experiment hypothesizes that the students instructed in semantic mapping outperform those who employ wordlists. This is as a result of the network built in students’ mental lexicon and the visual aids used in L2 vocabulary teaching.
To test the hypothesis of the research, four ESL classes from two different research sites forming a total of 60 participants, 10th graders, were randomly chosen as the main sample of this research. Also, the four ESL classes were randomly divided into two control groups and two experimental groups. After that, a pre-test in a multiple-choice format was run to ascertain whether the participants have the same low level of the target words prior to the experiment to assure their homogeneity. The target words, forty words, were selected by the class teachers from the 10th graders’ course book and then used by the researcher for the purpose of conducting the research experiment.
Six weeks later, the same test was re-administered but with the content of the test re-organized to measure participants’ development and retention of the target words at the end of the experiment. Another test, a delayed post-test, was administered three days after the post-test to enhance the reliability of the research tools and results. The results revealed a big difference in participants’ knowledge level of the target words before and after the experiment, and this difference was statistically significant for the participants who employed semantic mapping strategy.

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluating the Significance of the UAE 12 th Grade Language Instructional Material in Motivating Students to Achieve the Intended Goals Based on the Content-Based Approach

Journal of Education and Practice, 2018

This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility ... more This paper evaluates the current UAE 12 th grade language material in terms of its compatibility with the adopted approach and suitability for students' educational and cognitive levels in order to ascertain whether the present material motivates students to learn or not. The results of the current studies show that the current material is well-designed using the content-based approach to enhance students' learning of the four basic language skills, highlighting some benefits to sustain and some drawbacks to improve, along with some useful recommendations for future research.