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Abstract: This paper presents the results of an analysis of the attitudes of students of the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security at the University of Maribor (FVV UM) towards the use of distance learning tools in their language for specific purposes (LSP) course. Our aim was to investigate the students' experience with LSP distance learning tools by focusing on the impact of different language teaching methods on the respondents' attitudes towards LSP distance learning tools, on the students' and professors' perceptions regarding the use of digital tools for online learning and the professors' ability to adapt their teaching methods to online learning. The results were as follows: there were no major differences in attitudes regarding the students' gender, the students have proven to have sufficient knowledge of the use of digital tools, the professors have proven to have sufficient knowledge of the use of digital tools and are able to adapt them accordingly, although the perceptions of students regarding the adaptations made by the professors differed significantly from those of the professors. Consequently, a more informed choice of teaching methods and approaches should be made that would ensure better learning outcomes also in the case of online teaching.
Keywords: attitudes towards the use of digital tools, distance or online learning, Language for specific purposes (LSP), university students, teaching methods and approaches
Published in DKUM: 18.01.2024; Views: 348; Downloads: 15
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Abstract: Considerable attention has recently been invested into researching the influence of affective variables, such as attitudes and motivation on foreign language learning and teaching. The topic is timely and relevant especially at the time when English is being introduced as an obligatory subject in the first cycle of primary school in Slovenia. Two key issues are addressed: attitudes towards learning and teaching English as a foreign language and the profile of the young learners' language teacher. The article presents the results of a small-scale research conducted with a group of primary education students on their attitudes towards learning and teaching English. The results suggest that trainee teachers have moderately positive attitudes towards learning English but diverse attitudes towards teaching a foreign language.
Keywords: English as a foreign language, pre-service teachers, attitudes, motivation, young language learners
Published in DKUM: 22.09.2017; Views: 1286; Downloads: 129
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Abstract: This dissertation deals with a sociolinguistic analysis of attitudes towards Euro-English (E-E), denoting a specific variety of the English language as is primarily used within the multicultural and multilingual professional contexts of the European Union (EU) institutions. Particularly within the European Commission (EC) English has acquired the role of the primary working language. This is apparent from the most recent figures provided by its translation service, according to which as many as 81.3% of source documents were written in English in 2014 (as compared to 77.6% in 2012 and 62% in 2004), followed by French with only 5%. Consequently, 285 EC representatives from different EU member states were surveyed on their attitudes towards E-E, primarily focusing on those respondents whose mother tongues are not English. Crucially, they were asked to evaluate several sentences that deviated from Standard English according to their perceptions of what is acceptable English usage and what is not. Beforehand, a corpus-based analysis was conducted in order to determine which potentially E-E features to integrate within the acceptability test. Importantly, the authors of the examined EU material are deemed congruent as much as possible with the participants of the attitudinal analysis, as they all work for one of the main EU institutions. The main findings reveal that the high acceptability rates of the proposed deviant sentences among the surveyed non-native English-speaking EC representatives were primarily related to their lower proficiency in the English language and/or mother tongue interference, whereas we argue that the surveyed native speakers accepted most of them because they failed to apply a known language system accurately. Accordingly, we found out that the participants as a whole generally adhere to native models of English, i.e. British English, and thus do not personally endorse a European variety of English as a standard of linguistic correctness in their minds. Although specific usage that differs from the standard use of English has to an extent been developed within the EU institutions, the identified features must be regarded as EU jargon; which may be more or less obvious; rather than a particular E-E variety already expressing common EU culture and identity. We conclude that an independent variety of English, comparable to the Inner or Outer Circle Englishes, neither exists to date nor is in its earliest stage of development within the EU institutions.
Keywords: sociolinguistics, attitudes towards language, Euro-English, lingua franca, European Commission, working language, corpus linguistics, linguistic features, competence in English.
Published in DKUM: 13.06.2016; Views: 1623; Downloads: 179
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Keywords: sociolingvistika, preklapljanje, bilingvizem, izbira jezika, jezikovni stiki, izposojanje, sociolinguistics, code-switching, bilingualism, code-mixing, borrowing, structural constraints, language contacts, language choice, language attitudes
Published in DKUM: 10.07.2015; Views: 2305; Downloads: 80
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