Professional Article 05 | English Teaching Aids in Uzbekistan

Strengths:

1. The abstract is included and some background information is given in the introductory paragraph of the article.
2.The writer has made an attempt to use a range of reporting verbs in the article, e.g., Wright & Bolitho (1993) discuss…, Lightbown (2006) states that…, etc.
3. The writer has attempted to establish coherence and cohesion within paragraphs by focusing on the same theme consistently and using appropriate cohesive devices, e.g., meanwhile, thus, however, etc.
4. The writer has used a range of reliable and authoritative academic sources from renown publishers in their article, e.g., Heinle & Heinle, Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishers, etc.

Weaknesses:

1. Although the abstract is given, it could have better set out the purpose of the article and a list of keywords at the end.
2. A number of claims made by the writer are imprecise, unclear and need further revision and explanation.
3. Paragraphing should have been used more effectively in the article. The paragraph starting with “Language learning (LL) is still the area…” is overly long and needs to be divided into several shorter and more focused paragraphs.
4. The writer should have used more academic language in the article. For example, on several occasions, contractions, such as couldn’t and doesn’t, rather than full forms of the verbs, have been used.

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Professional Article Five:

INTRODUCING HYPERBOLE AS A PRAGMATIC ASPECT IN TEACHING LANGUAGE

Abstract
Conducting linguistic analysis can be very effective for learners of the second language. Understanding expressive means helps learner to be more confident user of English and interpret the pragmatic aspect of the language. Pragmatics gives learner an idea how people use the language and moreover demonstrate connection between the language and people who speak this language together with their culture traditions and behavior.

One of the problematic areas for language learner is understanding and expressing of certain feelings and thoughts in second language. It can be explained either by lack of practice, lack of language environment or i.e exposure to the real language, cultural issue, linguistic competence. There are some views which blame teachers language proficiency for non effective teaching, though teachers language awareness also in recent years became crucial for the responding to communicative teaching. Language issue and approach to teaching language can be one issue of teaching another problem is giving students opportunities to develop their discourse competence and language awareness. Leading ELT specialists Wright & Bolitho (1993) discuss the importance of Language Awareness in teacher education, whereas statement can be equally applied to learners as well. A linguistically-aware learners can accomplish tasks like speaking language accurately, having language competence, understanding language in use, and interpreting native speakers. High level of language awareness leads to obtaining good communication skills. Linguistic knowledge, provide the necessary analysis to overcome some language difficulties.” (Wright & Bolitho 1993).

Language learning is still the area which doesn’t have precise answer. Interesting comparison to the issue of LL was made by Scovel ( 2001). Teaching and learning Language can be compared with a popular social activity in the world such as dieting. The question of losing weight becomes the topic of many talks, books, magazines, self help courses however when it comes to the opinion of experts it turns out that the question of keeping fit is not easy to answer. Meanwhile there are a lot of effective programs and for learners, when addressing to the applied linguistics’ researchers who devoted their whole life to investigating of easy ways of learning language, still the answer can not be found. (Scovel 2001).) Investigating and contributing to the process of language acquisition is challenging, demanding and requires constant research, data collection on language and its expressiveness. Thus for learners it is necessary to spend a certain amount of time, attention, and experience for acquiring new language with all its full linguistic diversities. Some teachers believe that problems with language acquisition deal with lack of vocabulary, however other believes it is an age boundaries, by the developing of cognition this problem can be easily overcome. Lightbown ( 2006) in his book “how language are learned” states clearly that even learners acquire 5000 of new words and a good knowledge of the syntax and morphology of the target language, they still face with difficulties in using language. To better address the scope of investigation let’s look into the definition of discourse “written or spoken language espessially when it is studied to understand how people use the language” it is the way that language is used to construct connected and meaningful text, either spoken or written. (Macmillan dictionary 2008). Recent years research in applied linguistics shows that “Discourse analysis has become an increasingly attractive analytic method for researchers in second language development because of what it can show about that process and what it can suggest about second language pedagogy” (Schiffrin 2004). Idea of analyzing written and spoken language influence teaching and learning in discovering the nature of cognitive development in language. In addition, linguists believe that discourse analysis focuses on the processes of literacy development in second language learning which can be achieved by the ability to express intentions and meaning through different speech acts, or perceive and comprehend pragmatic features of second language. To be successful learner, learners need to know the meaning which goes beyond the sentence and can be interpreted differently in different situations or be able to unfold figurative language. It is assumed that figurative language is uncommon or poetic, however figurative language very popular spoken language among people i.e is communicative. In the study introduced by Roberts and Kreuz (1994) figurative language is defined as inseparable part of written and spoken discourse which is not always clear or precise: hyperbole, idiom, indirect request, irony, understatement, metaphor, rhetorical question, represent a certain discourse goal. They are universal in all languages, and learners may not be aware of those expressive means in their native language, although they skillfully use them in their L1. Foreign language expressive means are quite ambiguous for learners unless they are not familiar with its real use in language. Challenge comes from the fact that learners mostly focused on surface of the language e.g decontextualized vocabulary or just sentence level (subject and predicate), rather than deep analysis of linguistics phenomenon. For long time it was assumed that second language classrooms couldn’t provide appropriate input for learning how to realize intention and felling of the speaker. Wong (2005) in his article introduces Wierzbicka opinion that “Language is a tool for expressing meaning. We think, we feel, we perceive and we want to express our thoughts and feelings, our perceptions. Usually we want to express them because we want to share them with other people” following conclusion can be drawn that learning second language comes with the capability to express the meaning and achieving specific discourse goals.

References:

1. Lightbown, P.,& Spada, N.(2006). How language are learned. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
2. Macmillan dictionary (2007). Oxford. Macmillan Publishers Limited.
3. Roberts, R., & Kreuz, R. (1994). Why do people use figurative language? In Psychological Science, 5(3), 159-163. Retrieved from http//www.jstor.org.vlib.interchange.at/stable
4. Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D.,& Hamilton H.(2001).The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers.
5. Scovel, T.(2001).Learning new languages. A Guide to second language acquisition. San Francisco State University. Heinle & Heinle. Thomson Learning
6. Wong J. (2005). “Why You So Singlish?” A semantic and cultural interpretation of the Singapore English particle one. In Language in Society, 34(2), 239-275. Retrieved from http//www.jstor.org.vlib.interchange.at/stable
7. Wright, T.,& Bolitho, R. (1993). Language awareness: A missing link in language teacher education in ELT Journal,47(4),292-304.Oxford University Press.

Professional Article Five:

INTRODUCING HYPERBOLE AS A PRAGMATIC ASPECT IN TEACHING LANGUAGEIssue No. 1: The indefinite article a is needed before a singular noun phrase pragmatic aspect.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue
Issue No. 2: The title of the article should not appear in ALL capital letters. Only the content words should be capitalised.

Legend:

Idea Development Academic Style Grammatical Accuracy Lexical Appropriacy Source Use Macrostructure Spelling Accuracy Punctuation Accuracy

Abstract
Conducting linguistic analysisIssue No. 3: The indefinite article a is needed before a singular noun phrase linguistic analysis.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue can be very effective for learners of theIssue No. 4: The indefinite article a should be used instead of the definite article the because the reference is made to any second language.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue second language. Understanding expressive meansIssue No. 5: It is not entirely clear what the writer means by expressive means. They should have been more precise here. helps learnerIssue No. 6: The plural form of the noun learners should be used in this sentence. to be more confident userIssue No. 7: The plural form of the noun users should be used in this sentence. of English and interpret the pragmatic aspect of the language. Pragmatics gives learnerIssue No. 8: The plural form of the noun learners should be used in this sentence. an idea how people use the language and moreoverIssue No. 9: The interrupter word moreover needs to be set off with commas in the middle of the sentence.
Click here for Wordiness issue demonstrate connection between the language and people who speak this language together with their cultureIssue No. 10: The comma needs to be used between the items in the list.
Click here for Wordiness issue traditions and behavior.

One of the problematic areas for language learnerIssue No. 11: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Comma issue is understanding and expressing of certain feelings and thoughts in second languageIssue No. 12: The indefinite article a is needed before a singular noun phrase second language.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue. It can be explained either by lack of practice, lack of language environment orIssue No. 13: The conjunction or should not be used before exemplification.
Issue No. 14: The full stop and comma are missing after the letter e in this expression. i.e exposure to the real language, cultural issueIssue No. 15: The plural form of the noun issues should be used in the phrase., linguistic competenceIssue No. 16: The conjunction or is needed before the last item on the list of items.. There are some views whichIssue No. 17: The noun phrase views which needs to be replaced with the pronoun who because people rather than views are being referred to in this sentence. blame teachersIssue No. 18: The possessive form of the noun teachers’ is needed in this sentence. language proficiency for non effectiveIssue No. 19: The adjective ineffective is needed in this sentence. teaching, though teachersIssue No. 20: The possessive form of the noun teachers’ is needed in this sentence. language awareness also in recent years became crucial for the responding to communicative teaching.Issue No. 21: It is not entirely clear what the writer means to say in this sentence. Language issue and approach to teachingIssue No. 22: The run-on sentence needs some revision.
Click here for Run-on Sentence issue language can be one issue of teaching another problem is giving students opportunities to develop their discourse competence and language awareness. Leading ELT specialistsIssue No. 23: No redundant information needs to be given before the authors’ names in the in-text citation.
Click here for Redundancy issue Wright & Bolitho (1993) discuss the importance of Language Awareness in teacher education,Issue No. 24: The full stop should appear at the end of the sentence. whereas statement can be equally applied to learners as wellIssue No. 25: It is not entirely clear what the writer means in this sentence.. A linguistically-aware learnersIssue No. 26: The singular form of the noun learner needs to be used after the indefinite article a in this sentence. can accomplish tasks like speaking languageIssue No. 27: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue accurately, having language competenceIssue No. 28: This is not relevant in this sentence because it is not an example of a task., understanding language in use, and interpreting native speakers. High levelIssue No. 29: The plural form of the noun levels is needed in this sentence. of language awareness leadsIssue No. 30: The plural form of the verb lead is needed in order to establish subject-verb agreement in the sentence. to obtaining good communication skills. Linguistic knowledge, Issue No. 31: No comma should be used after the noun phrase Linguistic knowledge.
Click here for Comma issueprovideIssue No. 32: The singular form of the verb provides is needed in order to establish subject-verb agreement in the sentence. the necessary analysisIssue No. 33: A more appropriate noun tool should be used in this sentence. to overcome some language difficulties.Issue No. 34: No full stop should appear immediately after the direct quotation.
Issue No. 35: It is not entirely clear where exactly the direct quotation begins. The writer should have included quotations marks.
Click here for In-text Citations issue
Issue No. 36: Very long paragraphs should be avoided in academic writing. The writer should have divided this paragraph into several shorter paragraphs.” (Wright & Bolitho 1993).

Language learningIssue No. 37: The phrase Language learning should be followed by the abbreviation (LL). is still the area which doesn’tIssue No. 38: The full form of the verb does not should be used instead of the contracted one. have preciseIssue No. 39: The indefinite article a is needed before a singular noun phrase precise answer.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue answer.Issue No. 40: It is not entirely clear what the writer intended to say in this sentence. They should have been more precise and clear. Interesting comparison to the issue of LL was made by Scovel ( 2001). Teaching and learning LanguageIssue No. 41: The indefinite article a needs to be used before a singular noun language in this sentence.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue
Issue No. 42: The noun language should not be capitalised in this sentence. can be compared with a popular social activity in the world such as dieting. The question of losing weight becomes the topic of many talks, books, magazines, self help courses however when it comes to the opinion of experts it turns out that the question of keeping fit is not easy to answer.Issue No. 43: The long run-on sentence needs some revision.
Click here for Run-on Sentence issue MeanwhileIssue No. 44: The comma needs to be used after the introductory word at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue there are a lot of effective programs and for learners, when addressing toIssue No. 45: The preposition to should not be used in this sentence. theIssue No. 46: No definite article the is needed here.
Click here for Definite Article issue applied linguistics’ researchers who devoted their whole life to investigating ofIssue No. 47: The preposition of should not be used in this sentence. easy ways of learning language, still the answer can notIssue No. 48: The verb can not needs to be spelled as one word cannot. be found.Issue No. 49: It is not entirely clear what the writer intended to say in this whole sentence. They should have been more precise and clear. (Scovel 2001).) Investigating and contributing to the process of language acquisition is challenging, demanding and requires constant researchIssue No. 50: The conjunction and is needed between the two items on the list., data collection on language and its expressiveness. ThusIssue No. 51: The comma needs to be used after the introductory word at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue for learnersIssue No. 52: The comma needs to be used after the prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue it is necessary to spend a certain amount of time, attention, and experienceIssue No. 53: The verb gain needs to be used before the noun experience in this sentence. forIssue No. 54: The preposition in should be used in this sentence. acquiring new language with all its full linguistic diversitiesIssue No. 55: The phrase with all its full linguistic diversities is redundant in this sentence.
Click here for Redundancy issue. Some teachers believe that problems with language acquisition deal with lack of vocabulary, however other believes it is an age boundaries, by the developing of cognition this problem can be easily overcome.Issue No. 57: The run-on sentence needs some revision.
Click here for Run-on Sentence issue
Issue No. 56: A more appropriate verb phrase are caused by should be used in this sentence.
Issue No. 58: It is not entirely clear what the writer means in this sentence. Lightbown ( 2006)Issue No. 59: Both authors’ names need to appear in-text rather than only the name of the first author.
Click here for In-text Citations issue in his book “how language are learned”Issue No. 60: No title of the book needs to be given in the in-text citation. Only the author’s last name and year of publication should appear in text.
Click here for In-text Citations issue states clearlyIssue No. 61: The use of overly strong language like clearly should be avoided in academic writing. that evenIssue No. 62: The word if is missing in the even if construction in this sentence. learners acquire 5000 ofIssue No. 63: No preposition of is needed in this sentence. new words and a good knowledge of the syntax and morphology of the target language, they still face withIssue No. 64: The verb form are faced with should be used in this sentence. difficulties in using language. To better address the scope of investigationIssue No. 65: The comma needs to be used after the infinitive phrase at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue
Issue No. 66: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue let’s look intoIssue No. 67: A more formal phrase one can examine needs to be used in this sentence. the definition of discourse “written or spoken languageIssue No. 68: The phrase specifically it is needed before the actual definition of discourse. espessiallyIssue No. 69: The word should be spelled as especially. when it is studied to understand how people use the language” it is the way that language is used to construct connected and meaningful text, either spoken or written. (Macmillan dictionary 2008)Issue No. 70: The year of publication does not with the year of publication given in the References.
Click here for In-text Citations issue
Issue No. 71: The run-on sentence needs some revision.
Click here for Run-on Sentence issue. Recent yearsIssue No. 72: The preposition in should be used in this sentence.
Issue No. 73: The comma is needed after the prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue research in applied linguistics showsIssue No. 74: The present perfect tense of the verb has shown is needed in this sentence.
Click here for Tense issue that “Discourse analysis has become an increasingly attractive analytic method for researchers in second language development because of what it can show about that process and what it can suggest about second language pedagogy”Issue No. 75: The page number(s) should be given when the direct quotation appears in text. (Schiffrin 2004)Issue No. 76: The year of publication does not match with the year of publication given in the References.
Issue No. 77: Since the source has three authors, all their names need to be included in-text, rather than only the first author’s name.
Click here for In-text Citations issue. IdeaIssue No. 78: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue of analyzing written and spoken language influence teaching and learning in discovering the nature of cognitive development in language.Issue No. 79: It is not entirely clear what the writer means in this sentence.
Issue No. 80: The claim needs to be backed up by some research-based evidence in the form of an in-text citation.
Click here for Evidence issue In addition, linguists believe that discourse analysis focuses on the processes of literacy development in second language learning which can be achieved by the ability to express intentions and meaning through different speech acts, or perceive and comprehend pragmatic features of second language. To be successful learnerIssue No. 81: The indefinite article a needs to be used before a singular noun phrase successful learner in this sentence., learnersIssue No. 82: To avoid repetition, the noun learners should be replaces with one in this sentence. needIssue No. 83: The singular form of the verb needs should be used in order to establish subject-verb agreement in the sentence. to know the meaning which goes beyond the sentence and can be interpreted differently in different situations or be able to unfold figurative language. It is assumed that figurative language is uncommon or poetic, however figurative language very popular spoken language among people i.e is communicativeIssue No. 84: A more concise way of expression be used in this sentence.
Click here for Wordiness issue. In the study introduced by Roberts and Kreuz (1994) figurative language is defined asIssue No. 85: A more concise way of expression be used in this sentence.
Click here for Wordiness issue inseparable part of written and spoken discourse which is not always clear or precise: hyperbole, idiom, indirect request, irony, understatement, metaphor, rhetorical questionIssue No. 86: The conjunction and is needed before the last item on a long list of items. , Issue No. 87: No comma should be used after the last item on the list in this sentence.
Click here for Comma issuerepresent a certain discourse goal. They are universal in all languages, and learners may not be aware of those expressive means in their native language, Issue No. 88: No comma should be used before although in this sentence.
Click here for Comma issuealthough they skillfully use them in their L1Issue No. 89: It is not entirely clear what the writer means in this sentence.. Foreign language expressive means are quite ambiguous for learners unless they are not familiar with its real use in language. ChallengeIssue No. 90: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue comes from the fact that learners mostly focusedIssue No. 91: The present simple tense of the verb focus needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Tense issue on surfaceIssue No. 92: The noun aspects needs to be used in this sentence. of theIssue No. 93: The indefinite article a needs to be used before a singular noun language in this sentence.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue language e.gIssue No. 94: The full form of the phrase for example should be used in this sentence. decontextualized vocabulary or justIssue No. 95: The preposition at and the definite article the need to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue sentence level (subject and predicate)Issue No. 96: The phrase (subject and predicate) is redundant in this sentence.
Click here for Redundancy issue, rather than deep analysisIssue No. 97: The indefinite article a needs to be used before the singular noun phrase deep analysis.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue of linguisticsIssue No. 98: The adjective linguistic needs to be used in this sentence. phenomenonIssue No. 99: The plural form of the word phenomena is needed in this sentence. . For long timeIssue No. 100: The indefinite article a needs to be used in this phrase.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue
Issue No. 101: The comma needs to be used after the prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence.
Click here for Comma issue it was assumed that second language classrooms couldn’tIssue No. 102: The full form of the verb could not should be used instead of the contracted one. provide appropriate input for learning how to realizeIssue No. 103: A more appropriate verb interpret should be used in this sentence. intentionIssue No. 104: The definite article the needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Definite Article issue
Issue No. 105: The plural form of the noun intentions needs to be used here. and fellingIssue No. 106: The word should be spelled as feelings and the plural form needs to be used. of theIssue No. 107: The indefinite article a needs to be used in this sentence.
Click here for Indefinite Article issue speaker. Wong (2005) in his article introduces Wierzbicka opinion that “Language is a tool for expressing meaning. We think, we feel, we perceive and we want to express our thoughts and feelings, our perceptions. Usually we want to express them because we want to share them with other people”Issue No. 108: The in-text citation should be introduced more concisely and the secondary citation should be clearly indicated.
Click here for In-text Citations issue following conclusion can be drawn thatIssue No. 109: The sentence is wordy and needs revision.
Click here for Wordiness issue learning second language comes with the capability to express the meaning and achieving specific discourse goals.Issue No. 110: It is not entirely clear what the writer means in this sentence.

References:Issue No. 111: The following observations regarding the use of sources have been identified in this article:
1. All references are organised in alphabetical order in accordance with the last names of the authors, which agrees with the APA style referencing conventions.
2. The sources should not be numbered, instead, a hanging indentation needs to be used in each reference entry, i.e., every line after the first line should be moved a few spaces to the right.
3. A number of sources in the References are outdated, i.e., published more than 10 years ago, e.g., Roberts & Kreuz (1994), Wright & Bolitho (1993) and some others.
4. Some inconsistencies were observed in the use of punctuation. For example, in some sources, the comma is missing between the author’s last name and first name initial, e.g., Wong J. (2005) whereas in most sources, the comma is present. e.g., Lightbown, P.,& Spada, N.(2006).

Activities:

Question 1:
Which information (if any) is missing in the abstract of the article?

A: Nothing is missing; the abstract is brief and clearIncorrect: The abstract is not complete. It is missing a clear purpose and scope of the article.

B: The use of evidence is missing in the abstractIncorrect: The abstract is not supposed to contain any research-based evidence. It is normally given in the body of the article.

C: The statement of purpose is missing in the abstractCorrect: This abstract needs to contain a clear statement of purpose and scope of the article.

Question 2:
What is the main issue with the organisation of the paragraph starting with “Language learning (LL) is still the area which…”?

A: The paragraph is overly longCorrect: The paragraph extends for approximately two pages, which is too long for academic writing or, indeed, general comprehension. The writer should have divided it into several shorter paragraphs each focusing one specific aspect of the problem.

B: The paragraph contains too many in-text citationsIncorrect: This is not a problem since the use of in-text citations helps to back up the claims made in the article.

C: The paragraph has no concluding sentenceIncorrect: This is not an issue with this paragraph since it has a brief concluding sentence at the end.

Question 3:
Which of the sources that the writer cites in the article gives the definition of figurative language?

A: Schiffrin (2004)Incorrect: Schiffrin (2004) talks about discourse analysis in their study.

B: Roberts & Kreuz (1994)Correct: Roberts & Kreuz (1994) give a clear definition of figurative language.

C: The Macmillan dictionary (2008)Incorrect: The Macmillan dictionary (2008) contains the definition of discourse, but not of the figurative language.

Question 4:
Identify the problem(s) with the in-text citation from Schiffrin (2004)?

A: The names of the two co-authors of the article are missing in textIncorrect: The name of the two co-authors, i.e., Tannen & Hamilton are missing in-text; however, this is not the only problem with this citation.

B: The year of publication does not match with the year of publication that appears in the ReferencesIncorrect: The year of publication given in-text, i.e., (2004), does not match with the year of publication in the References, i.e., (2001); however, this is not the only problem with this citation.

C: Both 1 and 2 problemsCorrect: Both the names of the co-authors are missing in-text, i.e., Tannen & Hamilton, and the year of publication given in-text, i.e., (2004), does not match with the year of publication in the References, i.e., (2001).