Senad Becirovic - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Senad Becirovic

This study aimed at investigating vocabulary learning strategies employed by Bosnian EFL elementa... more This study aimed at investigating vocabulary learning strategies employed by Bosnian EFL elementary school learners attending the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade and the effect of gender and grade level on the students’ choice of vocabulary learning strategies. Furthermore, it attempted to explore the relationship between vocabulary learning strategy use and EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge as well as overall English knowledge. The results indicated that the participants are aware of vocabulary learning strategies and that they use them in their everyday learning. Gender showed no significant effect on the learners’ preferences for different vocabulary learning strategies, i.e. memory, cognitive and compensation strategies, while grade level had a significant effect on the use of one subtype, namely compensation strategies. Standard multiple regression was conducted to determine whether vocabulary learning strategies predict learners’ language achievement and vocabulary knowledge, and...

Despite constantly growing, many educational institutions have not been prepared to shift from tr... more Despite constantly growing, many educational institutions have not been prepared to shift from traditional to online learning environments until the pandemic. Current research aims to examine online students' satisfaction, interactions, internet self-efficacy and self-regulated learning among 210 high school students. The questionnaire has been used to collect the data from the participants. The findings suggested that the participants feel confident while using the Internet and are quite self-directed and do not lack interactions or satisfaction with online learning. Furthermore, the findings indicated that while grade level and GPA insignificantly influence students' satisfaction, time spent online and gender influence it significantly, with males reporting higher levels of satisfaction. While GPA and grade level significantly affect online interaction, gender and time spent online have no impact. Morever, students who invest extra efforts into learning and obtain high grades feel significantly more satisfied with online learning than those with lower grades. The time spent online significantly affect internet self-efficacy and self-regulated learning, while the influence of grade level, GPA and gender is insignificant. This study findings may help instructors create an online classroom environment conducive to improving online students' satisfaction, interaction, internet self-efficacy and self-regulated learning and, as a result, improve the effects of online education.

International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation, 2016

This article presents some of the main results from the research about development of talented st... more This article presents some of the main results from the research about development of talented students in mathematics. The research is focused on identification, analysis, and interpretation of all or most factors in the family environment that contribute to development of mathematical talent. The research results reveal the specific methods, actions, strategies, and other variables of the home environment that influence and affect development of mathematical talent. The revealed principles involved in the educational development of talented students will allow parents and educators to improve, modify, and develop new strategies of dealing with talented students in an attempt to enhance their outstanding development. This research is very important from scientific, social, and practical aspects. Parents, teachers, administration, policy makers, and the entire society have to support identification and development of talented students because of their remarkable contribution to scie...

European Journal of Education Studies, 2020

The development of the Lexical Approach through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in TEFL has... more The development of the Lexical Approach through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in TEFL has been hindered by disagreement as to the cause of L1 prior knowledge awareness of some lexis. The Lexical Approach theory claims that the most important difference is the increased understanding of the nature of lexis in naturally occurring language, and its potential contribution to language pedagogy. A review of studies investigating the effectiveness of the Lexical approach advanced by proponents of the Communicative approach (CLT) supported the validity of this phenomena. However, competing theories emphasise the importance of naturally occurring lexis features not addressed by CLT methodically. This article aims to critically assess and elaborate on how the emphasis on the lexical features of language use and learning are changing the methodology of TEFL nowadays. It was concluded that, while effective to some extent, the CLT is too restrictive to account for a full range of natural...

Imperial journal of interdisciplinary research, 2016

: Learning a second language has great benefits in the academia and the business world. Especiall... more : Learning a second language has great benefits in the academia and the business world. Especially learning English is a crucial factor in upward mobility around the world. The media have become a major component in learning English. The media, with television, mobile phones, computers, and the internet can provide more exposure to English language and culture as well as providing more chances to interact and communicate with native speakers of English. The benefits of the media in language learning are undeniable. Yet stereotyping and misrepresentation prevalent in and sophisticated construction of media materials raise the arguable view that the media programs are promoting only certain lifestyle and culture. Do media programs harbor cultural alienation in children? Do media materials endorse obliteration of African, Asian, and Eastern European cultures? This paper examines the careful usage of the media in English learning from a cultural studies and critical pedagogy perspectives.

Journal of Language and Education, 2021

Learning efficacy can be substantially improved through the frequent use of learning strategies, ... more Learning efficacy can be substantially improved through the frequent use of learning strategies, whose practicality has been confirmed through extensive research. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to contribute to this wealth of research by determining whether learning strategies are significant predictors of students’ achievement in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) as well as by exploring strategy awareness and variations in strategy use by gender, grade level, and overall grade point average (GPA) among 206 high school students. The results indicated that cognitive strategies are significant positive predictors, while memory and affective strategies are significant negative predictors of students’ achievement in foreign language learning. Moreover, the findings revealed a significant impact of overall GPA and an insignificant impact of gender and grade level on the use of strategy subtypes, with the most frequently used strategies being metacognitive and the le...

MAP Social Sciences, 2021

Gifted children with learning disabilities are known as twice-exceptional. Both the identificatio... more Gifted children with learning disabilities are known as twice-exceptional. Both the identification and the classification of twice-exceptional children are a matter for practical ingenuity, as these children tend to fall upon extremes of a scale, resulting in either the child with both obvious giftedness and a learning disability or in the child where the giftedness effectively masks the disability. The latter results in a child that tests as average upon surface-level assessments. In this article, a new direction of the identification of twice-exceptional students is proposed in terms of specific learning disabilities, specifically in terms of the latter form of students who go through education undiagnosed. In addition to this direction, we provide a condensed understanding of both giftedness and specific learning disabilities in students, as well as how they interact in twice-exceptionality, and how teachers might best navigate the issue of masking within the classroom.

European Journal of Contemporary Education, 2020

The Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education, 2015

1 IntroductionThe last twenty years has brought rapid social, political and economic changes whic... more 1 IntroductionThe last twenty years has brought rapid social, political and economic changes which have transformed the structure of society in many countries around the world, and especially in our region. A brief overview of these changes is sufficient to explain and justify attempts in recent years to reform education in most European countries. After the society clearly and profoundly changed it became necessary to reform education systems to be flexible, compatible with contemporary issues, and able to successfully tackle these challenges and the new realities.Education plays the most important role in the development and progress of an individual. It affects their social status and is the most important factor in economic prosperity and social emancipation. From a sociological point of view, the improvement of education does not happen solely because of individual needs, but originates and develops to meet the needs of the society. The educational system of any society is important for the overall social system. In static societies, the key function of the educational system is the transmission of cultural heritage to future generations. However, in today's modern world, education must respond to a number of other challenges and needs that it faces on a daily basis.Regardless of the level of development of society, education should be one of the most important social activities. Quality education is the main driving force of social progress. Today however, it is recognized that the most developed countries invest much more in education and different types of research in comparison to developing countries or underdeveloped countries.2 Changes in Educational SystemsCompetition for economic, military, and other forms of domination led to continuous analysis and re-evaluation of educational systems and the adoption of specific strategies for improvement with the aim of survival in the race for dominance. One of the most striking examples that authors constantly refer to is the competition between the United States and Russia in space exploration, especially after the Russian launch of Sputnik.Education is a key factor in social development. Social changes come with the collective transformation of individuals. Education is a process that allows all individuals to effectively participate in social activities and to contribute to social progress. Education systems then, have incalculable importance. Bringing about social change has a number of challenges however: professional, technical, social, moral, etc. These challenges require new standards and new approaches to training teachers both during faculty training as well as during their continuous professional development, because they have to be continuously trained in order to successfully face all the new challenges.After analysing the existing educational system, experts suggest specific needs for the transformation and harmonization of education systems, to new demands caused by social changes. Underscoring these needs, Patil (2012) suggests the following very common deficiencies in the current educational systems:(1) The present education does not generate or fortify the type of knowledge that is relevant to our changed society.(2) The technology associated with a particular body of knowledge is inappropriate to our stage of development in terms of its employment potential or investment demands.(3) Education has failed to provide a value-framework which may prepare committed politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, and professionals, on whom our nation can depend for a sophisticated system of support services, which will take the country to the highest level.The European concept of the new society, and its gradual application of those needs for the users of new educational services along with modern understanding of the role of education prepare teachers to face new demands within the education system. …

European Journal of Contemporary Education, 2018

European Researcher, 2018

European Researcher, 2016

In today’s globalized world mono-cultural societies have been gradually disappearing. A trend tow... more In today’s globalized world mono-cultural societies have been gradually disappearing. A trend towards the creation of multicultural societies began in 1960s. New multicultural societies were forced by the virtue of new conditions to engage themselves with others. The number of international institutions has adopted documents, which became the backbone of new education policy. Therefore, school systems worldwide began to work intensively on the promotion of intercultural values among young people. Intercultural education is most explicitly accomplished through textbook contents which encourage interaction, exchange, desegregation, interdependency and solidarity among people belonging to different cultural groups living in the same territory. Yet nowadays many multicultural nations encounter difficulties in holding together multicultural diversity and in establishing harmonious interpersonal relationships. This work deals with content analysis as one of the most frequently applied research methods in the field of education; and it is concerned with the analysis of the intercultural content in English language textbooks used in B&H in elementary schools. The main goal of this research is to determine the quantity and quality of content that point to intercultural education in the textbooks of English language used in elementary schools in the Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research involves both quantitative and qualitative analysis. We selected nine categories, important for intercultural education throughout English language textbooks: identity, cooperation and friendship, respect, tolerance, cultural relativism, stereotype, prejudice, oppression, and labeling. Results of textual analysis will offer scientific insight about the possible contributions of English language textbooks to intercultural education in B&H. This research for us is important because we believe that if multiculturalism is accepted as an asset not as a burden, with its proper utilization within the education system, multicultural nations would inevitably continue to benefit from their diversity.

MAP Social Sciences, 2022

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID pandemic, which caused interrupti... more In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID pandemic, which caused interruptions and delays in many activities, but most importantly, it led to some huge changes in education. Online teaching will prove to be the most commonly used method that should compensate for the inability to work in the classroom and allow the educational process to continue. Of course, this teaching method was not created in 2020, but it was only presented and implemented in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia with the beginning of the pandemic. In this paper, we see how these countries have faced abrupt changes in teaching, and how this change has affected students. Online teaching cannot be a mere transfer of analog content to digital; a different approach is needed in the implementation of teaching as required and offered by the digital medium, but at the same time it is necessary to preserve the basic principles of the lecturer and the curriculum. It is a call, both for teacher...

European Journal of Contemporary Education, 2019