Nasser Freahat | Al-Imam University (original) (raw)
Papers by Nasser Freahat
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2015
The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) wh... more The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (AP12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (NHWP) that is taught for Communication Skills (LC 099) at Yarmouk University. The researcher analyzed the types of reading passages and the reading skills taught by the reading exercises in the three textbooks, The content analysis of the reading passages showed no significant differences between the three textbooks and that three textbooks exposed the students more to the descriptive and expository types of passages than to the narrative passages and that the persuasive passages were almost excluded. Furthermore, the analysis of the reading skills showed that "pre-reading activities, skimming, and activities of locating details" were the dominant reading tasks in the secondary stage textbooks whereas "following-up activities that lead to writing, scanning, locating details, and identifying main ideas" were the dominant reading tasks in the university-level textbook (NHWP). The study recommended that a better communication between universities and schools should be established to bridge the reading gap. Index Terms-reading comprehension, content analysis, reading skills, postsecondary reading I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Reading is one of the most important skills that are highly appreciated in any community. Levine, Ferenz, and Revez (2000) state that "The ability to read academic texts is considered one of the most important skills that university students of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) need to acquire". Without adequate reading comprehension, students pursuing higher education are vulnerable to failure (Giuliano and Sullivan, 2007). Ideally, students who graduate from high school should have the ability to read the postsecondary material. However, this is not often the case. Although secondary school graduates may be able to successfully study the high school course content, a number of them may not be able to handle the kind of textbooks they encounter at the university level. Reading comprehension is considered a prerequisite for successful learning. If there is a gap in secondary school and university textbook requirements, students will suffer from a deficiency in their performance. If such a gap exists, students of successful secondary school could appear to be unprepared since their reading skills are insufficient for postsecondary texts. Thus, it is essential to ensure that students' reading be efficient and that all reading material be at an appropriate level of difficulty; that is, it must be neither too difficult for the students nor too easy to provide challenging practice (Leslie and Caldwell, 1997). Although English in Jordan has received a great emphasis and although reading is the core of Jordan's EFL curriculum in schools and universities, many university students in Jordan complain about the difficulty of the reading component in EFL courses. In spite of the educational and financial support, there is an observable weakness on the part of students in the reading comprehension skills. Jordanian universities have a series of compulsory courses which all aim to improve the students' ability in the four main skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. One of these courses is the English Language Course (LC) 099 which is the first introductory EFL course students study at the university in case the student could not pass an EFL proficiency test. A person may know the importance of a course like LC 099 once he notices the huge numbers of freshman students enrolled in the sections of this course. For example, in the first semester of the academic year 2011/2012, 2711 students distributed into 35 sections studied the course. By teaching LC 099, universities exert an effort on the improvement of reading comprehension. In spite of this emphasis on reading comprehension, many instructors of English in the Jordanian universities complain that there is an observable weakness in reading comprehension skills on the part of the students who fail to deal with the whole text as a unit. This weakness impairs their utilization of texts within and outside the academic context (Al Haddad, 1996). This deficiency in reading comprehension may be attributed to many factors among which is the reading material and how reading material and reading skills are presented in the textbooks at high school and university. According to
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of ... more The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of the reading content in secondary stage EFL textbooks in Jordan and an introductory EFL textbook taught in the Jordanian universities. The study involved EFL university instructors, secondary EF teachers, secondary stage students, and freshmen university students. The researcher developed a questionnaire to survey students' perceptions on the appropriateness of the reading material in the secondary stage and for preparing students to university level reading demands. The researcher also interviewed university EFL instructors and secondary EFL teachers to add more credibility to the findings of the study. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students viewed "the appropriateness of the reading content in AP11 and AP12 as "suitable", their "preparation for the university reading level" and their "preparation with reading strategies and their experience with the reading content in NHWP" "fairly suitable". Moreover, EFL teachers and instructors viewed the reading content in the three textbooks as generally easy but still difficult for the students. EFL teachers indicated that the majority of the students leave the secondary schools unprepared for the university. Similarly, the university EFL instructors indicated that the majority of the freshmen university students were usually unprepared for the reading demands at the university level.
This book is an analysis of the reading content in EFL high school and first year university text... more This book is an analysis of the reading content in EFL high school and first year university textbooks. The book is built on a study wherein the reading content in three textbooks in the transitional period between secondary school and university were scientifically analyzed. It improves that there is a reading gap between high school and university textbooks. It also proves that there is a gap between the levels of the books and those students who use them. The book is also an endeavor to bridge the gap between school and university reading requirements.
European Scientific Journal, Dec 29, 2014
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (M... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on developing listening skills among Saudi EFL university students. To achieve this purpose, a listening was prepared and administered. Then, a MOOC was designed, programmed, and presented to the students to develop their listening skills. The sample of the research included forty level-one, English major students. They were randomly selected to be included in the experimental group (N=20) and the control group (N=20). Findings of the research revealed that the MOOC has been effective in the development of specific listening skills. The findings also revealed statistically significant differences between the post-test mean scores in all listening skills, namely, intensive, selective, and extensive which were in favor of the experimental group.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions i... more The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP 11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for the first English language course taught at Yarmouk University. All WHquestions in the three textbooks analyzed according to Bloom's Taxonomy. The researchers calculated the percentages and frequencies of the cognitive levels of the questions in the three textbooks. Chi square (χ2) was used to draw comparisons between the cognitive levels of the questions. The results indicated that low-level questions are dominant in the three. It was also found that low-level questions were dominant in both stages. An interesting conclusion was that the reading material of the university textbook does not show a higher level of thinking. On the contrary, the reading content in the high school textbooks revealed more concentration on higher-level thinking questions. As a result, the study recommended that there should be more communication between secondary schools and universities to bridge the gap between them.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading ... more This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading texts in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for an introductory English language course in the Jordanian Universities. The sample of the study involved 274 eleventh grade students, 300 twelfth grade students, and 310 freshmen students who were studying CL 099 at Yarmouk University in the academic year 2011/2012. The study employed Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease formulas to identify the readability level of each textbook. Furthermore, a sixth-word deletion cloze test version of a representative text from each textbook was used to identify the match between the textbooks and the students. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school textbooks are on average about three grade levels higher in reading difficulty than the textbook of the university level. Furthermore, the cloze test results showed that the majority of the students studying each textbook were at their frustration reading levels.
Education and Linguistics Research, 2019
This study aims at investigating Saudi university English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching as... more This study aims at investigating Saudi university English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching assistants’ linguistic, pedagogic and technological needs. The sample of the study involves (52) female and (32) male teaching assistants all working in the department of English language and literature at Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) in the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. The study employed a questionnaire to answer the research questions. The results demonstrated that Saudi teaching assistants are in dire need to improve their competences. Based on their responses, technological competence ranks as the most needed skill which indicates that they were willing to implement Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in their classroom. The study also showed that linguistic competence was the second most needed competence while the pedagogic competence is the third most needed skill to be mastered. Saudi teaching assistants need systematic assessment of t...
Journal for the Study of English Linguistics
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality types and English l... more The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality types and English language learning strategies, and to examine the pattern of English language learning strategies used by Saudi EFL university students. The sample of the study consisted of 68 EFL female students in the English department at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU). Two instruments were used to collect the data; Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The findings indicated that the participants were medium-high range strategy users and that the most frequently used strategy category among the six categories is metacognitive strategies followed by cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, and finally, affective strategies. The observations indicated that there were some significant differences among students’ language learning strategy preferences based on their perso...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (M... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on developing listening skills among
Saudi EFL university students. To achieve this purpose, a listening was
prepared and administered. Then, a MOOC was designed, programmed, and
presented to the students to develop their listening skills. The sample of the
research included forty level-one, English major students. They were
randomly selected to be included in the experimental group (N=20) and the
control group (N=20). Findings of the research revealed that the MOOC has
been effective in the development of specific listening skills. The findings
also revealed statistically significant differences between the post-test mean
scores in all listening skills, namely, intensive, selective, and extensive
which were in favor of the experimental group.
This study aimed at investigating the effect of an integrative program, the effect of gender and ... more This study aimed at investigating the effect of an integrative program, the effect of gender and the interaction between gender and the program on developing Jordanian university students’ achievement in English .The participants of the study were 122 university students. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. The data were collected using an achievement test which was validated and its interscorer reliability was ensured. ANCOVA was used to analyze the students’ full degrees while MANCOVA was used to analyze their sub degrees of the test. The results revealed a significant difference between the adjusted mean scores of students’ achievement in the posttest and a significant difference between the adjusted means for the students’ achievement in the parts of the posttest. The results showed no significant difference between the adjusted mean scores of students due to gender and the interaction between gender and the teaching method. They also showed a significant difference between the means of the students’ achievement in structures due to the interaction between the teaching method and gender in favor of the male while there was no statistically significant effect in vocabulary and reading comprehension.
The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) wh... more The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (AP12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (NHWP) that is taught for Communication Skills (LC 099) at Yarmouk University. The researcher analyzed the types of reading passages and the reading skills taught by the reading exercises in the three textbooks, The content analysis of the reading passages showed no significant differences between the three textbooks and that three textbooks exposed the students more to the descriptive and expository types of passages than to the narrative passages and that the persuasive passages were almost excluded. Furthermore, the analysis of the reading skills showed that “pre-reading activities, skimming, and activities of locating details” were the dominant reading tasks in the secondary stage textbooks whereas “following-up activities that lead to writing, scanning, locating details, and identifying main ideas” were the dominant reading tasks in the university- level textbook (NHWP). The study recommended that a better communication between universities and schools should be established to bridge the reading gap.
This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading ... more This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading texts in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for an introductory English language course in the Jordanian Universities. The sample of the study involved 274 eleventh grade students, 300 twelfth grade students, and 310 freshmen students who were studying CL 099 at Yarmouk University in the academic year 2011/2012. The study employed Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease formulas to identify the readability level of each textbook. Furthermore, a sixth- word deletion cloze test version of a representative text from each textbook was used to identify the match between the textbooks and the students. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school textbooks are on average about three grade levels higher in reading difficulty than the textbook of the university level. Furthermore, the cloze test results showed that the majority of the students studying each textbook were at their frustration reading levels.
The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of ... more The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of the reading content in secondary stage EFL textbooks in Jordan and an introductory EFL textbook taught in the Jordanian universities. The study involved EFL university instructors, secondary EF teachers, secondary stage students, and freshmen university students. The researcher developed a questionnaire to survey students’ perceptions on the appropriateness of the reading material in the secondary stage and for preparing students to university level reading demands. The researcher also interviewed university EFL instructors and secondary EFL teachers to add more credibility to the findings of the study. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students viewed “the appropriateness of the reading content in AP11 and AP12 as “suitable”, their “preparation for the university reading level” and their “preparation with reading strategies and their experience with the reading content in NHWP” “fairly suitable”. Moreover, EFL teachers and instructors viewed the reading content in the three textbooks as generally easy but still difficult for the students. EFL teachers indicated that the majority of the students leave the secondary schools unprepared for the university. Similarly, the university EFL instructors indicated that the majority of the freshmen university students were usually unprepared for the reading demands at the university level.
The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions i... more The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP 11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for the first English language course taught at Yarmouk University. All WH-questions in the three textbooks analyzed according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The researchers calculated the percentages and frequencies of the cognitive levels of the questions in the three textbooks. Chi square (χ2) was used to draw comparisons between the cognitive levels of the questions. The results indicated that low-level questions are dominant in the three. It was also found that low-level questions were dominant in both stages. An interesting conclusion was that the reading material of the university textbook does not show a higher level of thinking. On the contrary, the reading content in the high school textbooks revealed more concentration on higher-level thinking questions. As a result, the study recommended that there should be more communication between secondary schools and universities to bridge the gap between them.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2015
The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) wh... more The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (AP12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (NHWP) that is taught for Communication Skills (LC 099) at Yarmouk University. The researcher analyzed the types of reading passages and the reading skills taught by the reading exercises in the three textbooks, The content analysis of the reading passages showed no significant differences between the three textbooks and that three textbooks exposed the students more to the descriptive and expository types of passages than to the narrative passages and that the persuasive passages were almost excluded. Furthermore, the analysis of the reading skills showed that "pre-reading activities, skimming, and activities of locating details" were the dominant reading tasks in the secondary stage textbooks whereas "following-up activities that lead to writing, scanning, locating details, and identifying main ideas" were the dominant reading tasks in the university-level textbook (NHWP). The study recommended that a better communication between universities and schools should be established to bridge the reading gap. Index Terms-reading comprehension, content analysis, reading skills, postsecondary reading I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Reading is one of the most important skills that are highly appreciated in any community. Levine, Ferenz, and Revez (2000) state that "The ability to read academic texts is considered one of the most important skills that university students of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) need to acquire". Without adequate reading comprehension, students pursuing higher education are vulnerable to failure (Giuliano and Sullivan, 2007). Ideally, students who graduate from high school should have the ability to read the postsecondary material. However, this is not often the case. Although secondary school graduates may be able to successfully study the high school course content, a number of them may not be able to handle the kind of textbooks they encounter at the university level. Reading comprehension is considered a prerequisite for successful learning. If there is a gap in secondary school and university textbook requirements, students will suffer from a deficiency in their performance. If such a gap exists, students of successful secondary school could appear to be unprepared since their reading skills are insufficient for postsecondary texts. Thus, it is essential to ensure that students' reading be efficient and that all reading material be at an appropriate level of difficulty; that is, it must be neither too difficult for the students nor too easy to provide challenging practice (Leslie and Caldwell, 1997). Although English in Jordan has received a great emphasis and although reading is the core of Jordan's EFL curriculum in schools and universities, many university students in Jordan complain about the difficulty of the reading component in EFL courses. In spite of the educational and financial support, there is an observable weakness on the part of students in the reading comprehension skills. Jordanian universities have a series of compulsory courses which all aim to improve the students' ability in the four main skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. One of these courses is the English Language Course (LC) 099 which is the first introductory EFL course students study at the university in case the student could not pass an EFL proficiency test. A person may know the importance of a course like LC 099 once he notices the huge numbers of freshman students enrolled in the sections of this course. For example, in the first semester of the academic year 2011/2012, 2711 students distributed into 35 sections studied the course. By teaching LC 099, universities exert an effort on the improvement of reading comprehension. In spite of this emphasis on reading comprehension, many instructors of English in the Jordanian universities complain that there is an observable weakness in reading comprehension skills on the part of the students who fail to deal with the whole text as a unit. This weakness impairs their utilization of texts within and outside the academic context (Al Haddad, 1996). This deficiency in reading comprehension may be attributed to many factors among which is the reading material and how reading material and reading skills are presented in the textbooks at high school and university. According to
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of ... more The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of the reading content in secondary stage EFL textbooks in Jordan and an introductory EFL textbook taught in the Jordanian universities. The study involved EFL university instructors, secondary EF teachers, secondary stage students, and freshmen university students. The researcher developed a questionnaire to survey students' perceptions on the appropriateness of the reading material in the secondary stage and for preparing students to university level reading demands. The researcher also interviewed university EFL instructors and secondary EFL teachers to add more credibility to the findings of the study. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students viewed "the appropriateness of the reading content in AP11 and AP12 as "suitable", their "preparation for the university reading level" and their "preparation with reading strategies and their experience with the reading content in NHWP" "fairly suitable". Moreover, EFL teachers and instructors viewed the reading content in the three textbooks as generally easy but still difficult for the students. EFL teachers indicated that the majority of the students leave the secondary schools unprepared for the university. Similarly, the university EFL instructors indicated that the majority of the freshmen university students were usually unprepared for the reading demands at the university level.
This book is an analysis of the reading content in EFL high school and first year university text... more This book is an analysis of the reading content in EFL high school and first year university textbooks. The book is built on a study wherein the reading content in three textbooks in the transitional period between secondary school and university were scientifically analyzed. It improves that there is a reading gap between high school and university textbooks. It also proves that there is a gap between the levels of the books and those students who use them. The book is also an endeavor to bridge the gap between school and university reading requirements.
European Scientific Journal, Dec 29, 2014
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (M... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on developing listening skills among Saudi EFL university students. To achieve this purpose, a listening was prepared and administered. Then, a MOOC was designed, programmed, and presented to the students to develop their listening skills. The sample of the research included forty level-one, English major students. They were randomly selected to be included in the experimental group (N=20) and the control group (N=20). Findings of the research revealed that the MOOC has been effective in the development of specific listening skills. The findings also revealed statistically significant differences between the post-test mean scores in all listening skills, namely, intensive, selective, and extensive which were in favor of the experimental group.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions i... more The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP 11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for the first English language course taught at Yarmouk University. All WHquestions in the three textbooks analyzed according to Bloom's Taxonomy. The researchers calculated the percentages and frequencies of the cognitive levels of the questions in the three textbooks. Chi square (χ2) was used to draw comparisons between the cognitive levels of the questions. The results indicated that low-level questions are dominant in the three. It was also found that low-level questions were dominant in both stages. An interesting conclusion was that the reading material of the university textbook does not show a higher level of thinking. On the contrary, the reading content in the high school textbooks revealed more concentration on higher-level thinking questions. As a result, the study recommended that there should be more communication between secondary schools and universities to bridge the gap between them.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading ... more This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading texts in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for an introductory English language course in the Jordanian Universities. The sample of the study involved 274 eleventh grade students, 300 twelfth grade students, and 310 freshmen students who were studying CL 099 at Yarmouk University in the academic year 2011/2012. The study employed Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease formulas to identify the readability level of each textbook. Furthermore, a sixth-word deletion cloze test version of a representative text from each textbook was used to identify the match between the textbooks and the students. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school textbooks are on average about three grade levels higher in reading difficulty than the textbook of the university level. Furthermore, the cloze test results showed that the majority of the students studying each textbook were at their frustration reading levels.
Education and Linguistics Research, 2019
This study aims at investigating Saudi university English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching as... more This study aims at investigating Saudi university English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching assistants’ linguistic, pedagogic and technological needs. The sample of the study involves (52) female and (32) male teaching assistants all working in the department of English language and literature at Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) in the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. The study employed a questionnaire to answer the research questions. The results demonstrated that Saudi teaching assistants are in dire need to improve their competences. Based on their responses, technological competence ranks as the most needed skill which indicates that they were willing to implement Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in their classroom. The study also showed that linguistic competence was the second most needed competence while the pedagogic competence is the third most needed skill to be mastered. Saudi teaching assistants need systematic assessment of t...
Journal for the Study of English Linguistics
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality types and English l... more The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality types and English language learning strategies, and to examine the pattern of English language learning strategies used by Saudi EFL university students. The sample of the study consisted of 68 EFL female students in the English department at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU). Two instruments were used to collect the data; Oxford’s (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The findings indicated that the participants were medium-high range strategy users and that the most frequently used strategy category among the six categories is metacognitive strategies followed by cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, and finally, affective strategies. The observations indicated that there were some significant differences among students’ language learning strategy preferences based on their perso...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Massive Open Online Course (M... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on developing listening skills among
Saudi EFL university students. To achieve this purpose, a listening was
prepared and administered. Then, a MOOC was designed, programmed, and
presented to the students to develop their listening skills. The sample of the
research included forty level-one, English major students. They were
randomly selected to be included in the experimental group (N=20) and the
control group (N=20). Findings of the research revealed that the MOOC has
been effective in the development of specific listening skills. The findings
also revealed statistically significant differences between the post-test mean
scores in all listening skills, namely, intensive, selective, and extensive
which were in favor of the experimental group.
This study aimed at investigating the effect of an integrative program, the effect of gender and ... more This study aimed at investigating the effect of an integrative program, the effect of gender and the interaction between gender and the program on developing Jordanian university students’ achievement in English .The participants of the study were 122 university students. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. The data were collected using an achievement test which was validated and its interscorer reliability was ensured. ANCOVA was used to analyze the students’ full degrees while MANCOVA was used to analyze their sub degrees of the test. The results revealed a significant difference between the adjusted mean scores of students’ achievement in the posttest and a significant difference between the adjusted means for the students’ achievement in the parts of the posttest. The results showed no significant difference between the adjusted mean scores of students due to gender and the interaction between gender and the teaching method. They also showed a significant difference between the means of the students’ achievement in structures due to the interaction between the teaching method and gender in favor of the male while there was no statistically significant effect in vocabulary and reading comprehension.
The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) wh... more The study aimed to examine the appropriateness of the reading content in Action Pack 11 (AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (AP12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (NHWP) that is taught for Communication Skills (LC 099) at Yarmouk University. The researcher analyzed the types of reading passages and the reading skills taught by the reading exercises in the three textbooks, The content analysis of the reading passages showed no significant differences between the three textbooks and that three textbooks exposed the students more to the descriptive and expository types of passages than to the narrative passages and that the persuasive passages were almost excluded. Furthermore, the analysis of the reading skills showed that “pre-reading activities, skimming, and activities of locating details” were the dominant reading tasks in the secondary stage textbooks whereas “following-up activities that lead to writing, scanning, locating details, and identifying main ideas” were the dominant reading tasks in the university- level textbook (NHWP). The study recommended that a better communication between universities and schools should be established to bridge the reading gap.
This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading ... more This study aimed to analyze the readability, appropriateness and difficulty level of the reading texts in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for an introductory English language course in the Jordanian Universities. The sample of the study involved 274 eleventh grade students, 300 twelfth grade students, and 310 freshmen students who were studying CL 099 at Yarmouk University in the academic year 2011/2012. The study employed Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease formulas to identify the readability level of each textbook. Furthermore, a sixth- word deletion cloze test version of a representative text from each textbook was used to identify the match between the textbooks and the students. The findings of the study revealed that the secondary school textbooks are on average about three grade levels higher in reading difficulty than the textbook of the university level. Furthermore, the cloze test results showed that the majority of the students studying each textbook were at their frustration reading levels.
The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of ... more The study aimed to examine the attitudes towards the appropriateness and the difficulty level of the reading content in secondary stage EFL textbooks in Jordan and an introductory EFL textbook taught in the Jordanian universities. The study involved EFL university instructors, secondary EF teachers, secondary stage students, and freshmen university students. The researcher developed a questionnaire to survey students’ perceptions on the appropriateness of the reading material in the secondary stage and for preparing students to university level reading demands. The researcher also interviewed university EFL instructors and secondary EFL teachers to add more credibility to the findings of the study. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students viewed “the appropriateness of the reading content in AP11 and AP12 as “suitable”, their “preparation for the university reading level” and their “preparation with reading strategies and their experience with the reading content in NHWP” “fairly suitable”. Moreover, EFL teachers and instructors viewed the reading content in the three textbooks as generally easy but still difficult for the students. EFL teachers indicated that the majority of the students leave the secondary schools unprepared for the university. Similarly, the university EFL instructors indicated that the majority of the freshmen university students were usually unprepared for the reading demands at the university level.
The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions i... more The purpose of this study was to analyze thinking levels of the reading comprehension questions in Action Pack 11 (hereafter AP 11) which is taught for grade 11, Action Pack 12 (hereafter AP 12) that is taught for grade 12 at the schools of The Jordanian Ministry of Education and New Headway Plus Pre-intermediate (hereafter NHWP) that is taught for the first English language course taught at Yarmouk University. All WH-questions in the three textbooks analyzed according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The researchers calculated the percentages and frequencies of the cognitive levels of the questions in the three textbooks. Chi square (χ2) was used to draw comparisons between the cognitive levels of the questions. The results indicated that low-level questions are dominant in the three. It was also found that low-level questions were dominant in both stages. An interesting conclusion was that the reading material of the university textbook does not show a higher level of thinking. On the contrary, the reading content in the high school textbooks revealed more concentration on higher-level thinking questions. As a result, the study recommended that there should be more communication between secondary schools and universities to bridge the gap between them.