01.THE SECOND NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE, MIND AND LEARNER'S COGNITIVE CAPACITIES March, 7th/8th 2016 University of Eloued

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Wisdom Begins in Wonder
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) BOULKROUN, Meriem; ASSESS, Mohamed Tahar
In many language classrooms, students are assessed solely on the basis of their linguistic productions.However, this is not enough since schools are, and have always been, places where students are supposed to learn to think. The challenge isto teach students higher order thinking skills and to train them to think critically.Most educators would agree that their students are not as proficient at these kinds of thinking since textbooks and other teaching materials often consist of tasks that require low-level skills and ignore higher order thinking skills. Over the years, educators such as Bloom (1956) and Gardner (1983) have worked on the development of a simple, practical framework to help teachers be more effective and systematic in teaching their students how to think by proposing various ways to describe the components of thinking. Those frameworks changed the way teachers taught and assessed students. Nowadays, educators shifted concern from performance-oriented goals to learning-oriented goals. To develop the skills and strategies necessary for deep and careful thinking, students must be engaged in tasks that require critical thinking and problem solving. Socratic questioning provides a good method to enhance learners‘ critical thinking.
Use of the Social Constructivist Approach in Teaching Oral Skill to FirstYear BA Students of English
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Chelghoum, Ahlem
Communication plays a vital role in learning oral skill. However, for most learners, particularly first year BA students, speaking remains the most difficult skill to master. Most students are reluctant to speak because of some psychological factors such as anxiety and lack of confidence, or because their motivation is quite low due to some adopted approaches which are mostly teacher centred and dominated by a few skilled and more advanced students. This state of affairs leaves the majority of students with very little or no participation in the classroom. It is, then, a great challenge for teachers to make students communicate verbally and express their thoughts fluently in oral classes. One possible solution to takethis challenge is the application of the social constructivist approach to teaching the oral skill based on the works of Vygotsky. This paper will briefly review social constructivism, which is widely touted as an approach and which has been fruitfully applied in many EFL contexts though with some inevitable drawbacks. It also aims to investigate the possibility of applying it in oral classes in order to overcome the unwillingness of First year BA students to communicate. Substituting the classical monotonous approach by a more motivating one that triggers students‘ interests and enhances their learning strategies will considerably contribute to making them good speakers of English in and out of the classroom
THREE LEARNERS IN THE SAME BOAT
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) MAOUCHE, Salima
The cognitive competencies that compose the education domains have evolved to allow learners to function in and adapt to the social conditions and the many diversified techniques and strategies meant to adjust and evolve the teaching and learning process. A more central concern in modern society is the EFL students‘ learning of evolutionarily basic competencies, such as reading, writing, and speaking. Evolutionary educational psychology is the study of the relation between cognitive knowledge as these influence academic learning in evolutionarily educational contexts. One core goal of schools and schooling is to organize the activities of the EFL Learners so that they acquire competencies, such as the ability to practice the target language skills which are important in the wider fields. The paper at hand is a trial experiment conducted with first year EFL learners at the department of English, University of Bejaia. Therefore, the research methodology has been designed according to this situation as most of the first year EFL learners present some kind of shyness, apprehension and frustration in front of the new environment where only English is used mostly in the speaking skill. Based on observation and experimentation techniques and cemented by questionnaires as tools to gather reliable data, we hypothesized that ideas designed by brain experts, who conducted complicated experiments consisting of implementing and involving ―Brain Gym‖ before the lecture is delivered might be a future theory that will promote in class collaborative movement as a learning aid and provide the EFL learners with creativity and self expression. Therefore, in order to conduct this investigation on solid bases, there is a sub- research question which will provide more insight and importance to the main key research question: sub-question: How will selected teaching techniques (safe place, kindness, comprehension, teacher language talk and modeling voice, and instant reactions) impact the students‘ mood, behavior and overall conflicts and difficulties? Key research question: what effects will well -structured and designed language disciplines and brain gym strategies have on EFL students‘ behavior and learning achievements? The experiment looked promising as most of the population under study felt dynamic, collaborative, self confident and productive.
The Role of Students' Learning Styles in Enhancing Classroom Instruction
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) MEHIRI, Ramdane; HOADJLI, Ahmed Chaouki
EFL students usually feel lost in many courses because they come to university with their traditional learning habits, such as relying on the teacher's handouts and his explanations. However, since 2004, students have not been seen as recipients of knowledge and information. The LMD model has led to irrevocable changes, especially in the learner's role: the learner has become a real knowledge-seeker. To help these students to cope with English language classes and to achieve better, the present study employed a questionnaire to find answers to the question, "What kind/type of learners are you?" Our hypothesis starts from the assumption that an awareness of the learners' learning styles is very beneficial. This study singled out three categories of learning styles from a group of thirty (30) first year students. The analysis of the results enabled the researchers to elicit the respondents' reactions and feelings about the discovery of their categories as EFL learners. The results show that students really need to discover their learning styles so as to build their own learning strategies
The Role of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in Modeling Human Excellence and Mental Skills to Accelerate Learning: Uncovering the exact thought process underlying successful results
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Bouallaga, Meriem
This paper aims basically at sheding the light up on the the distinctive role of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in modeling human excellence and mental skills in order to accelerate the learning process for our learners, and at highliting or uncovering the exact thought process underlying successful results of those who are considered to be super-fast learners. In fact, there is a missing piece in our educational system. We do not teach students how to learn in the classroom. Specifically, we do not teach them what to do inside their mind. The missing piece is that we are not considering the students‘ mental strategies. We just assume they will learn if we teach in enough different ways. There are lots of great teachers and wonderful teaching methods out there to present the information and there are many ways to evaluate the students to see how much they have learned. But what about the part in between when the student is thinking, processing, and memorizing the information. Some students pick up effective ‗mental strategies‘ for learning and memorizing and others don‘t. Learning in school is in fact a mental skill that needs to be taught to those students who don‘t. The thought process a person goes through to get a particular result was a foggy factor, until NLP came along and gave us a precise way to uncover a person‘s thinking process. Thus our goal is to simulate a precise model of what these persons do and what they think. And then building a complete model to teach it to someone else, teach the most effective mental or thinking strategies in order to accelerate the learning process.
The role of Metacognitive Strategies in the Creation of Discourse
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) NAOUA, Mohammed
Bachman and Palmer (1996) define communicative competence as the ability to create and interpret discourse. According to the authors, this ability is organized into two main constituents: language competence and metacognitive strategies. The former refers to the domain of information stored in memory; and encompassing grammatical, textual, functional and sociolinguistic knowledge. The latter refer to the metacognitive, the neurological and physiological processes that provide a cognitive management for language use. On the one hand, these mental processes make it possible for the different sectors of language knowledge to interact internally to create language. On the other hand, they serve as a mediator between these internal traits and the external context. This paper attempts to shed light on therole of metacognitionin the creation and interpretation of discourse
The Impact of Working Memory Capacity on Listening Comprehension (Case Study: Second Year LMD Students, Department of English, Guelma University)
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Boumaza, Hadjer
The present study aims at investigating the impact of EFL Working Memory Capacity on Listening Comprehension. Since listening comprehension is considered as a necessary skill for the overall mastery of English, students should have efficient working memory capacity in listening comprehension in order to master the foreign language the way natives do. Therefore, we hypothesize that raising second year students‘ as well as teachers‘ awareness of the impact of working memory capacity in listening comprehension enhances their performance in listening comprehension of the English language.
The Impact of Using Literature on Foreign Language Learning Development The Case of Third Year Secondary School (Biskra)
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) BENDAHMANE, Messaouda
Linguistics and literature are two interwoven domains though they seem different. They play a major role in one‘s (foreign) language learning process. In the 20th century, the relationship between linguistics and literature has changed and became more interesting to know that they can, together, enhance language learning/teaching. The development of the communicative approaches to language learning, the aim of language learning was to encourage the communicative competence in the foreign language, so that students would have the opportunity to express their ideas in the target language. Teaching literature can provide assistance in language learning as it makes teaching/ learning linguistic features easier and motivating. Using literary texts in teaching the assigned language forms is, then, of vital importance as it provides learners with authentic and cultural material for language learning and encourages their cognitive and communicative processes. In this paper, we shall shed light on two arguments for teaching literature in the foreign language class. 1. Literature helps in language acquisition through inferencing and narratives that suit students‘ cognitive development; 2. It gives access into the target culture and facilitates its potential contact with the learners‘ culture.
The Efficiency of Implementing the Interpretive Perspective in Teaching English in Algeria Case of Middle and High School Textbooks
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Betka Rezig, Nadia
The Algerian English textbooks designed for middle and high school levels present the cultural information about the foreign language speaking communities through an interpretive perspective or a trans-cultural information using universal categories of human behavior and the learner is expected to relate and interpret the information and evaluate it. If the learner is not provided with a key to interpret phenomena with the local culture, the interpretive approach outcomes can not be fulfilled and the learner will be introduced to much knowledge without learning a specific information. Following Vygotsky‘s view on learners‘ Proximal Zone Development, the teaching of second and foreign languages should implement a task based curriculum to introduce information and to generate learners‘ cognitive abilities being problem solvers rather than passive learners. The interpretive perspective presents a wide range of varied cultural information but it must be supported with tasks and exercises that can develop learners‘ critical thinking that prepares them for more advanced knowledge at university level; for instance, in learning literature. The present study presents data gathered from a questionnaire administered to first year university English learners and a language proficiency test (written and oral) they sat for. The two research instruments were used respectively, to collect data on English learners‘ attitude towards English and its culture as well as the main deficiencies that these learners present as far as critical skills such as comparison, interpretation, analysis and opinion gaps are concerned. The results showed that English learners arrive at university carrying a positive attitude towards the English culture though they recognize the excessive differences between the local and the foreign language cultures and present a serious deficit in cultural critical skills visible through their achievement in the oral and written tests.
Teachers‟ Roles in Promoting Students‟ Use of Cognitive Capacities and Strategies
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Mazri, Meriem; Boudehane, Nora
Cognitive structures are the basic mental processes people use to make sense of information. In a language classroom setting, learners use those mental processes to understand academic content and create output that reflects what has been perceived and learnt. However,one issue teachers can ecounter is that when they present a very well organized, suitable lesson, they wonder why some learners ‗get it‘ and others do not.In effect, in order for language learners to be proficient , teachers can help them develop their intellectual capacity so they can meet the academic experience with success. To fulfill this aim, students need cognitive strategies to fully understand and construct meaning from their experiences. Hence, the purpose of the present paper is to shed some light on teachers‘ perspectives, standpoints and ways they adoptd to help students foster their cognitive capacities when learning a foreign language at the depatment of Letters and English Language, University of Frères Metouri Constantine. The analysis of the teachers questionnaire yielded valuable information obout different issues connected to instruction, learning and learners cognitive capacities. These information would help us understand better the teaching learning processes and so offer possible solutions and recommandations for future use.
Reading Speed: A Major Factor in Skilled Reading and a Source of Comprehension Impediment
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) ARAB, Ouided
The present study aims at investigating the effects of paced reading on improving Algerian students‘ reading speed without reducing their reading comprehension. It is hopefully intended to help teachers identify the most effective ways of enhancing reading efficiency for the Algerian students. The current study is stimulated by the fact that reading is by far the most eminent skill that plays a significant role in improving readers‘ language proficiency, especially in EFL settings. Actually, EFL learners basically rely on this skill to acquire knowledge as the FL is seldom spoken outside the classroom. Nevertheless, students, in general, endure serious reading difficulties which are mainly caused by the lack of reading fluency. They tend to plough through a reading print struggling in a word-by-word reading stumbling at every unknown word, which makes it more difficult to grasp the meaning of what they read. This is explained by the fact that spending more time and energy (not being automatic) at recognizing individual words overloads their short-term memory so that what is stored there is not meaningful to them. This, in fact, hampers their reading comprehension because the mental energy used by a person to process incoming information is a limited cognitive capacity.To achieve the aforementioned aim, an empirical study is carried out. The study sample is divided into two groups: an experimental group is submitted to paced reading training, and the control group is not trained at all. The results obtained in the pretest and post-test are analysed via the statistical student T-test. The latter showed an improvement in reading speed in favour of the experimental group participants without a concurrent decrease in their level of understanding.
Piaget‟s and Vygotsky‟s Constructivist Theories
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) GHAOUR, Nesrine
Constructivism is based on the premise that learners construct their own learning from their experiences. Effective learning occurs when learners actively process the information in a way that is meaningful to them.Constructivism is of two waves: Piaget‘s psychological/individual constructivism; ‗the first wave constructivism‘ or ‗solo constructivism‘, and Vygotsky‘s social constructivism; ‗the second wave constructivism‘. The first, Piaget constructivism, is concerned with knowledge that focuses on the individual and psychological sources of learning. Piaget views learning as active construction of knowledge that challenges and guides thinking toward understanding. Learning is the process of exploration and discovery; experience influences thinking and thinking in its turn influences knowledge. Piaget further refers to four stages of cognitive development that all humans go through: The sensorimotor stage, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. For Piaget, assimilation, accumulation and equilibratium areessential processes for effective learning. The latter, Vygotsky‘s Social constructivist theory views language learning as socialization, not only as cognition. It recognizes that social interaction and culture are important in shaping individuals‘ learning. It also views teachers and students as co-constructors of meaningful interaction. Vygotsky constructivism is based on the following terms: ―Zone of Proximal Development‖ (ZPD), mediation, and scaffolding. Hence, the constructivist view of learning is at the heart of developing autonomous learners who either individually -Piaget- or interactively-Vygotsky- construct their own knowledge
Netlinguistics in the service of Netlish
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) NESBA, Asma
Computer Mediated Discourse (CMD/ Netlish) is the language resulting from the use of Computer Mediated Communication which is generally text-based language. This language came as the result of people‘s attempt to adapt their language to cope with the linguistic constraints and opportunities provided by the new technology.The general assumption is that CMC and the internet have a bad influence on language. CMD is becoming less formal, less polite and highly abbreviated. Therefore people are anxious about the quality of the people‘s written production because of the breach of the standards and norms of the traditional written language. Nelinguistics studies the effects of the Internet and other new media such as Short Message Service (SMS) and text messaging on the language in terms of the new language forms and styles. Applied Netlinguistics has different applications ; one of them is the pedagogical application which is interested in integrating the Internet into EAP to help developing new literacies and language learning skills. In fact, we have to accept the new change brought to language because space and time constraints brought about technology are responsible for this change. This change is not necessarily negative. Here came the importance of pedagogy in instructing students to use CMC properly without feeling the fear from the new technology. Students must be instructed both the well constructed texts used in academic settings as well as the specific texts used for personal interactions.
Learner’s Mental Model and the need for the Creative Teacher
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) MEGA, Afaf
This paper endeavors to shed light on the learner’s mental model, its importance in understanding the learner’s mental representation regarding his learning experience. Sometimes, the wrong mental model might lead to wrong interpretations and wrong future decisions which might hinder the learning situation as a whole. Therefore, the presence of the creative teacher to deal with the learner’s mental model is crucial as he inquires and seeks for alternatives to solve the learning problems. On the light of this, our paper is divided into two main parts; in the first, we will discuss the importance of knowing learner’s mental model for both the teacher and the learner and the role of the creative teacher in dealing with it. Whereas in the second part, which will be practical, we will test second year students’ mental models regarding oral expression class using one of the measuring tools to come up in the end with some results and recommendations
Le français chez les étudiants algériens : Qu‟en est-il vraiment ?
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) RAMDANI, Fatiha; SADOUNI, Rachida
La présente communication a pour objet l‘enseignement du français dans l‘université algérienne. Elle se penche particulièrement sur la détérioration de niveau dans cette langue, au sein des étudiants. En outre, notre communication se veut une réflexion sur les facteurs induisant ce constat, et cherche, par la même occasion à proposer des méthodes et techniques pour remédier à cette situation. Nous tenterons, donc, dans cette intervention de situer la langue française dans la société algérienne, d‘introduire son statut, à la fois contradictoire et durable. Par ailleurs, nous nous étalerons sur l‘enseignement de cette langue dans les universités algériennes, en prenant en considération, bien sûr, le contexte plurilingue des étudiants algériens. Cette communication a pour thème essentiel l‘enseignement/apprentissage
L'APPROCHE COGNITIVE DE L'APPRENTISSAGE
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) BASSI, Med EL Hadi
Implication of Concrete Materials for Error Correction to Develop Oral Accuracy among Young Middle School EFL Learners
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) HEBIRET, Sara
In the processes of teaching and learning in general and correction of errors in particular, middle school EFL teachers are expected to focus on what Piaget calls “concrete operations” by offering clear and simple explanation of the target linguistic knowledge through the utilization of visuals (e.g., colored papers, pictures, flashcards), and the aim is principally to foster better understanding, memorization, and retention. This study undertakes to explore the nature of the strategies the middle school EFL teachers utilize in their correction of errors, and their immediate effects on the pupils’ ability develop the overall oral accuracy. The final results reveal that the observed teachers of English (n=3) from Bachir Ben Nacer Middle School in the Wilaya of Biskra (from the three grade levels): (a) provide verbal correction on the air without using board work or flashcards; (b) offer difficult and incomprehensible corrective input, which seems to be beyond the pupils’ capacities; and (c) correct via interruption. As for stimulated recall interviews, the findings indicate that those procedural techniques do not appear to sit well with the pupils’ cognitive abilities and even their wants, which undermines the viability of corrective feedback.
Enhancing Technology for a better Cognitive Capacity in Learners
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Benchennane, Djamila
Since the mid-1990s, the digital revolution is mainly appeared as an opportunity to have access to cultural content. Scientists have been seeking ways to increase students‘motivation in learning; there is no better way than integrating new Technologies in the educational system.The best way to improve approaches to the learning / teaching, is to use new technologies: the fast development of new media technologies (such as VCD, DVD, DTV, MP5, PlayStations, Visual Presenter, PowerPoint, Internet and Intranet) has begun to usher in new approaches to classroom management. The teachers have to learn to adapt themselves to this new revolution in media technologies with reference to the designing and teaching of cultural studies course.This paper seeks ways this enlargement of the space expressions of individuals has extended the effect techniques of technological tools. Furthermore, this article aims at including the role of technology and suggests some strategies to improve our ways/ styles of lives to make a good use of this technology without forgetting the domain of teaching to make the class an enjoyable place where the learner loves to go to properly develop knowledge / skills. We will thus focus on education since we must provide our learners with relevant and contemporary experiences that allow them to successfully engage with technology and prepare them for a better grasp of languages. No one denies that learners are motivated and fully engaged in the learning process when concepts and skills are underpinned with technology. As far as the practical side is concerned, we will share our experience in using ICT‘s in the classroom and for a better way to be more objective, we will discuss the questionnaire administered to 2nd year LMD system to know their view points about this issue i.e. learning through technology. Finally, some recommendations will be provided so as to motivate learners and make of the classroom an enjoyable place to learn.
Constructivist Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky: General Teaching Implications
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) Kouicem, Khadidja; Kelkoul, Nachoua
There are many different learning theories that can be used to help guide a teaching/ learning process. Constructivism is one theory that explains how people might acquire knowledge and learn. The theory suggests that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world by testing ideas and approaches based on their prior knowledge and experience. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two eminent figures in the cognitive development (development of constructivist theories). While there are similarities between the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, differences exist, and those differences are critical to the understanding and application of the theories in educational settings and have great impact on the teaching methods. We can distinguish therefore between cognitive constructivism which is about how the individual learner understands things, in terms of developmental stages and learning styles, and the social constructivism, which focuses on how meaning and understanding grow out of social encounters.
Cognitive Factors Influencing Second Language learning
(University of Eloued جامعة الوادي, 2016-03-07) GHEDEIR BRAHIM, Mohammed
Second language learners are different. It is proved that they learn with different speed and different results. The general factors that influence second language learning according to Ellis (1985) are intelligence and aptitude, and cognitive learning styles. This paper aims in the first place to elaborate cognitivism and its implications to the second language learning by analyzing the three views on second language acquisition (the behaviorist view, the innatist view, and the interactionist view). In the second place, the present study describes language proficiency and the influence of cognition on second language acquisition. Then the study sheds light on intelligence and aptitude, and cognitive learning styles as key cognitive factors influencing second language (L2) learning.

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