Academic literature on the topic 'Supplementing textbook'

One approach to taking advantage of corpora in language teaching would be adding to a textbook through enriching it through employing corpus-based research. When it comes to using English for Academic Purposes (EAP) materials, the inclusion of corpora in teaching language becomes even more urgent. In the current study, the authors did their best to investigate and describe the presence of formulaic language in an EAP textbooks titled: English for international tourism: Pre-intermediate students’ book written by Dubicka and O’keeffe (2003) through a case study, and corpus-driven method as a research methodology. Therefore, this study aims to investigate to what extent the EAP course book designed for tourism titled English for international tourism (EIT) is compatible with a corpus-driven formulaic approach. Findings show that this EAP textbook falls fairly short of presenting the necessary formulas as frequently employed in tourism English. Supplementing such materials with corpora and the formulaic they provide may boost the quality of EAP education and practice.

This article discusses one of the less mainstream areas of ESP teaching, that of legal English for students of company law. The author begins by analysing the approach used by subject-domain specialists themselves and the current criticism regarding the conservative textbook approach which continues to dominate teaching theory in this area. To this effect, she presents the results of a study carried out from October 2014 to March 2015 regarding subject-domain textbooks most used in Law Schools in Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA. The paper then addresses the question of teaching legal English to students of company law. After a brief outline of the three main theories underlying language teaching –behaviourist, cognitive and communicative– the author provides a critical guide to the main course books available to teachers in this rarefied area of specialised language learning, listing the types of exercises proposed, and evoking their overall strengths and weaknesses. To conclude, she suggests means of supplementing course book material.

For most of the twentieth century, paleontology instruction focused on memorization of taxa, morphology, and stratigraphic ranges. Consequently, paleontology got the reputation as a boring, stagnant, musty old field with this “idiographic” approach that focused on details at the expense of the broader implications. The “Paleobiology Revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s radically changed paleontological pedagogy. New generations of paleontologists who were weaned on the 1972 Raup and Stanley textbook (which had no systematic coverage of invertebrates) adopted a more dynamic, “law-like” or “nomothetic” approach. The emphasis on ideas, concepts, and controversies over memorization of names and dates makes paleontology far more interesting and relevant to geology majors, most of whom will not become paleontologists and will not need huge numbers of names to do their jobs. However, paleontology instructors still must include basic information about the major phyla of fossils or else the theoretical ideas lack any reference in reality. My own approach mixes both theoretical and systematic concepts, with lectures on major topics (taphonomy, ontogeny, population variation, speciation, micro and macroevolution, extinction, paleoecology, biogeography, functional morphology) alternating with lectures supplementing lab exercises.

Prediction skill may be used in reading comprehension passages as encapsulated in interactive approach instruction. Prediction skills assist learners to decode the meaning of comprehension passages by constructing guesses about the contents of texts to be read in comprehension passages. Learners in Vihiga County register low achievement in English language examinations than peers in neighbouring counties over the years. The performance is much weaker in comprehension passages than grammar sections. Although there are low grades, the nexus between use of prediction skills and learners’ achievement in reading comprehension passages has not been assessed. This study applied the Solomon Four Non-Equivalent Group Design to obtain primary data from 279 primary school learners and 8 teachers in 2017. Multiple linear regression used generated two models, one for the experimental group (Model 1) and one for the control group (Model 2). Findings indicate that the influence of prediction skills on learner achievement in reading comprehension passages was significant in experimental, but insignificant in the control groups. However, influence was stronger in the experimental than in the control groups, suggesting that training English language teachers on correct application of prediction skills improves learner achievement in reading comprehension passages. The study recommends need to: sensitise teachers on textbook usage, while supplementing with improvised materials; guide learners through titles; as well as update teacher training curriculum by integrating inter alia, emerging instructional methods embracing Information and Communication Technology and entrenching innovation in resource mobilization and use.

Over the latter years education practice has changed a lot. New ways, forms and means of teaching “are coming” to comprehensive schools. Even applying common teaching methods and forms, their application algorithm is changing. First of all, it is related to virtual environment. You can find plenty of important material for education practice in the internet. One of urgent fields is digital teaching/learning content. We can basically assert that digital teaching/learning content is a perspective way seeking to improve education process. However, it is not right to refer only to research works carried out in other countries. It is necessary to assess the context of the country, to accomplish representative evaluations in the population of Lithuanian students and teachers. Digital teaching/learning content, as research works carried out in other countries show, can be an effective means in the teaching/learning process. Lithuania is short of such research works. Quite often teachers practitioners “are experimenting” in a very limited space and restrict themselves to only individual digital content component creation, e.g., of various computer teaching programmes. The object of this research is the efficiency evaluation of digital presentations and lesson scenarios for “Nature and man “subject lessons. Digital presentations and lesson scenarios are arranged according to the textbook “In scientists’ footsteps 5”content. The main aim is to evaluate the arranged digital teaching/learning content. The evaluation was carried out in four main aspects: • Didactic; • Technological; • Usage; • Need. The research was going on from the beginning of January, 2011 to the middle of April, 2011. 20 teachers gave experimental lessons and carried out the evaluation of each of them. The evaluation paper was prepared. It contained 34 statements, connected with the employment of digital content. The statements were evaluated in the 5 range scale from “quite agree” to “quite disagree”. Also the teachers were asked to give comments which they considered to be necessary. Experimental lessons were given in the following order: • IB+PPT (Interactive board +Power Point presentation); • IB+AcIns (interactive board +Active Inspire presentation); • S+PPT (screen + PowerPoint presentation); • S +AcIns (screen + Active Inspire presentation). One group of teachers (11) were using interactive boards + PPT/AcIns + lesson scenarios in the lessons. The second group (10) were using the screen + PPT/AcIns + lesson scenarios in the lessons. In addition, some teachers tried IB/S + lesson content was given in pdf format. Research results show, that digital teaching/learning content together with arranged lesson scenarios for the realisation of the latter is undoubtedly, an innovative phenomenon in the educational practice. DTC (Digital Teaching Content) application in education practice is significant, because it directly educates students’ digital literacy as one of the essential abilities. DTC is basically interpreted as a component supplementing and integrating traditional teaching means. It has been stated, that DTC usage makes the lesson more effective regardless of the subject of the lesson (makes it more interesting, diverse, more attractive), develops students’ cognitive and psychosocial abilities, strengthens learning motivation, activates teaching/learning process itself. In addition, employment of DTC plays a supplementing role in education process applying various ICT, e.g., interactive boards, multimedia projectors and other. It has been stated, that prepared DTC in respect of realisation and extent of time is suitable and optimal. Optimal amount of slides is presented, the duration of slide usage in terms of time is optimal, and the foreseen activities are fully implemented. Referring to research results we can claim, that the priority is given to Active Inspire format. We can surely assert that DTC usage together with the other teaching /learning devices solves valeological - ergonomic problems. Time is saved, the usage of time allotted to learning is made more effective, teachers’ work itself is made easier, in this way forming possibilities to solve other important education questions. Key words: basic school, digital teaching and learning content, evaluation, natural science education.

Purpose – In an introductory finance course, business school students often report difficulty in dealing with several variables and regression equations in testing the forward market efficiency and its relevant hypotheses: forward rate unbiasedness, rational expectations, risk neutrality and homogeneous expectations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Although each of these hypotheses may be relatively easy to understand one by one, it is harder to see their linkages. Thus, the author develops the loop diagram for supplementing traditional instruction methods. Findings – The author finds that a significant majority of students prefer the loop diagram approach. Furthermore, students using loop diagram display more understanding of the forward market efficiency than those with access to a conventional instruction. Originality/value – The loop diagram provides students a simple visual aid for formulating a complete set of regressions and enables them to analyze a richer set of relationships between several hypotheses than what they typically see in finance textbooks.

Biogeochemical cycles support all anthropogenic activities and are affected by them, therefore they are intricately interlinked with global environmental and socioeconomic issues. Elements of these cycles that are already included in the science/chemical curriculum and textbooks intended for formal education in Greek secondary schools were thoroughly reviewed and on the basis of the gaps and needs identified new didactic materials were produced. The didactic materials were designed in order to enhance the comprehension of the biogeochemical cycles (of water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur) and include educational content and guidance to achieve ESD goals including strengthening of students' environmentally-friendly attitudes and commitment towards sustainability. These materials clarify the function of the cycles supplementing chemical knowledge and scientific information relevant to the real world phenomena and conditions (e.g.climate change, ocean acidification, eutrophication) that learners could experience, connecting them with sustainable development issues (sustainable consumption and production, renewable energies,etc.). The materials were assessed as successful by educators and students through experimental implementation in 16 Greek secondary schools. The present article (Part I of the research) focuses on the aim, content and design of the didactic materials while in Part II, assessment of their impact on the knowledge and attitudes of students is presented.

I Was Born in Spain to a Spanish Mother and a Nigerian Father. I Moved to Nigeria on the Day That I Turned Seven and remained in the country for nine years. The interplay between my cultural liminality and an early aestheticism has determined my experience of literature—first as a precocious reader and later as a teacher and scholar.My first literary diet, like that of many children, consisted of fairy tales and abridged classics. At primary school in Nigeria, our English textbooks featured passages from African novels to teach reading comprehension. While I found the short storylines interesting, their pedagogical use meant that I did not perceive them as “literature”—a word that I associated with stories to wonder at, get lost in, and daydream about. At the age of nine I graduated to unabridged Dickens novels and Shakespeare plays alongside Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, supplementing my diet with Spanish chivalric romances such as Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo's Amadís de Gaula (1508) and Francisco Vázquez's Palmerín de Oliva (1511). Apart from a sense of intrigue, these two works gave me respite from an unrelenting sense of otherness. They provided vicarious adventure, and their settings reminded me of the Castilian castles that formed part of my early-childhood landscape.

This study attempted to determine whether supplementing textbook reading and writing exercises in the typical Jesuit high school Spanish III curriculum with native-language electronic conferences, E-mail and bulletins can significantly improve the Spanish verbal skills of the students involved. The focus was on the comparison of the achievement of the students in the same level of the Spanish curriculum in two similar Jesuit High Schools in the same city, one in the Bronx, New York, and another in Manhattan, New York. The control group followed the traditional curriculum and the experimental group supplemented textbook reading and writing assignments with their participation in one of the Internet Spanish language conferences. Using a pre-test/post-test instrument, the National Spanish Examination of the American Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, no significant difference was found in the performance of the Spanish III students of the two groups that could be traced to the intervention of this study's experiment. There was found, however, a UN hypothesized and significant difference in the pretest performance of the two groups which seems to indicate that further studies may conclude that either this difference was unique to this pairing or that some other factor which eluded this study needs examining. Among the recommendations made by this study is the examination of the role of a Classical Latin requirement in the curriculum of one of the schools. Finally, finding no deterioration of performance in verbal skills in the language studied due to the substitution of E-mail conferences for traditional text book exercises, this study encourages their use and further experimentation due to the possible motivational factors that may be involved and the increasing availability of the needed technology.

ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of figures and tablesList of terms and abbreviations1. Introduction1.1 Writing conventions2. Background information3. Statistics related to the primary EFL classroom3.1 Pupils’ computer use at home3.2 Pupils’ internet use at home3.3 Teachers’ computer use at school3.4 Pupils’ computer use at school3.5 Teachers’ internet use at school3.6 Pupils’ internet use at school3.7 Implications for supplementing textbooks3.7.1 Computer and internet infrastructure3.7.2 Teachers’ IT skills3.7.3 Teachers’ methodological skills3.7.4 Summary4. Choosing and using educational software4.1 Why use computers in the EFL classroom?4.2 What computers are not4.3 What computers are4.4 Types of software: correct vs. create5. Choosing a computer-based task5.1 Task support offered by open-ended software5.1.1 Self-directed learning and differentiation5.1.2 User-friendliness5.1.3 Cooperation and job allocation5.2 Task constraints imposed by computer hardware5.2.1 Computer equipment5.2.2 Location and time6. The case for using multimedia applications6.1 What is multimedia?6.2 Learning software vs. multimedia authoring programs (MAP): consumption vs. production6.2.1 Presentation of content6.2.2 Access to content6.3 Usability6.3.1 Usability vs. Utility6.3.2 Finding a high-usability program6.4 Summary7. The task: producing a talking book8. Multimedia authoring programs for publishing talking books8.1 Microsoft Office PowerPoint8.1.1 Other uses to PowerPoint8.2 Windows Movie Maker8.3 Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows8.4 Producing a talking book with Photo Story8.4.1 Preliminary considerations8.4.2 Staging8.4.3 Storyboard8.4.4 Work at the computer8.5 Other proprietary multimedia authoring programs9. The case for free software9.1 Quality of free software9.2 Security of free software9.3 Service for free software9.4 Finding the right software9.5 Scratch10. Conclusions10.1 The case against web-based activities10.2 Dealing with the limited number of computers at schools10.3 From textbooks to notebooks10.4 From procuring to leasingReferencesAppendix 1: Interview questionsAppendix 2: Resource CD

This thesis is a reflective exploration of the use and impact of using drama pedagogies in the English as a Second Language (ESL)/ English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. It stems from the problem of secondary school English language learning in Malaysia, where current teaching practices appear to have led to the decline of the standard of English as a second language in school leavers and university graduates (Abdul Rahman, 1997; Carol Ong Teck Lan, Anne Leong Chooi Khaun, & Singh, 2011; Hazita et al., 2010; Nalliah & Thiyagarajah, 1999). This problem resonates with my own experiences at school, as a secondary school student, an ESL teacher and, later, as a teacher trainer. Consequently, these experiences led me to explore alternative or supplementary teaching methodologies that could enhance the ESL learning experience, drawing initially from drama techniques such as those advocated by Maley and Duff (1983), Wessels (1987), and Di Pietro (1983), and later from process drama pedagogies such as those advocated by Greenwood (2005); Heathcote and Bolton (1995); Kao and O'Neill (1998), and Miller and Saxton (2004). This thesis is an account of my own exploration in adapting drama pedagogies to ESL/EFL teaching. It examines ways in which drama pedagogies might increase motivation and competency in English language learning. The main methodology of the study is that of reflective practice (e.g. Griffiths & Tann, 1992; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). It tracks a learning journey, where I critically reflect on my learning, exploring and implementing such pedagogical approaches as well as evaluate their impact on my students’ learning. These critical reflections arise from three case studies, based on three different contexts: the first a New Zealand English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class in an intermediate school, the second a Malaysian ESL class in a rural secondary school, and the third an English proficiency class of adult learners in a language school. Data for the study were obtained through the following: research journal and reflective memo; observation and field notes; interview; social media; students’ class work; discussion with co-researchers; and through the literature of the field. A major teaching methodology that emerges from the reflective cycles is that of staging the textbook, where the textbook section to be used for the teaching programme is distilled, and the key focuses of the language, skills, vocabulary, and themes to be learnt are identified and extracted. A layer of drama is matched with these distilled elements and then ‘staged’ on top of the textbook unit, incorporating context-setting opportunities, potential for a story, potential for tension or complication, and the target language elements. The findings that emerge through critical reflection in the study relate to the drama methodologies that I learn and acquire, the impact of these methodologies on students, the role of culture in the application of drama methodologies, and language learning and acquisition. These findings have a number of implications. Firstly, they show how an English Language Teaching (ELT) practitioner might use drama methodologies and what their impact is on student learning. While the focus is primarily on the Malaysian context, aspects of the findings may resonate internationally. Secondly, they suggest a model of reflective practice that can be used by other ELT practitioners who are interested in using drama methodologies in their teaching. Thirdly, these findings also point towards the development of a more comprehensive syllabus for using drama pedagogies, as well as the development of reflective practice, in the teacher training programmes in Malaysia. The use of drama pedagogies for language learning is a field that has not been researched in a Malaysian context. Therefore, this account of reflective practice offers a platform for further research and reflection in this context.

The development and update of clinical guidelines are based on an evaluation of the latest data from clinical studies. According to the National Academy of Medicine, clinical practice guidelines are ‘statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care that is informed by a systematic review of the evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options’. These expert documents are intended to provide systematically developed statements that include recommendations on how to translate clinical knowledge from scientific evidence into best patient-centred, evidence-based practice. Supplementing the textbook, clinical guidelines are now being increasingly considered decision drivers, and are being used by healthcare providers to choose the most appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic managing strategy, standardize care, reduce variation, and improve outcomes. The core of each of the clinical practice guidelines are the recommendations developed according to an established scale of the hierarchy of evidence. Although randomized controlled trials are at the top of the pyramid of evidence as the preferred study design for assessing the effects of two or more interventions, in many instances, task force members must rely on findings from observational studies. This is particularly so as trial patients may not always be typical of routine clinical practice. Hence, valuable information can be obtained from both randomized controlled trials and observational studies, including subgroup analysis, cohorts, or case series; therefore, each type of scientific research can be a significant complement to the other and contribute to guideline developments.