The current study sought to examine the impact of teacher motivational practice on the improvement of Iraqi high school EFL learners’ fluency and accuracy in speaking. To this end, 50 female Iraqi high school students in Baghdad were selected based on a placement test. To gather the required data, two instruments, namely the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) and a speaking test were utilized. The study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design in which two dependent variables and one independent variable were applied. The participants joined a regular English teaching course for 18 consecutive sessions, three sessions each week. The last twenty minutes of each session was given to storytelling which was used as a motivational practice. Two different methods of storytelling were used for a cohort of students present in the control and experimental groups. After the intervention, the post-test was given to the participants to evaluate their improvement and to compare their performance with the pre-test. To analyze the data sets, an unpaired samples t-test was used to compare the means of the two groups. The results showed that teacher motivational practice improved Iraqi EFL high school learners’ fluency and accuracy in speaking. Lastly, the results and implications of the study were presented.
Keyword(s) : accuracy
Estimating Accuracy of Quantity Representation During the Whole Schooling Period: Problems of Methods Development
The relevance and social demand for developing methods for measuring the accuracy of representation of quantitative information are associated with the need to analyze specific cognitive functions that underlie individual differences in speed and quality of learning in school. Expressed in symbolic, non-symbolic and mixed formats, representation of quantity is one of the most important cognitive functions that determines the success of learning mathematics. The article presents the results of the development and adaptation of three tests – “Number Sense”, “Number Line” and “Dot Number Task” – that measure the accuracy of the representation of quantitative information presented as sets of objects, numbers, and their combinations. The total number of study participants involved in the process of test adaptation amounted to 1,751 students in grades 1–11 aged from 6.8 to 18.8 years, of which 48.8% were girls. For each test, an internal consistency analysis was carried out, descriptive statistics were calculated, and the distribution of indicators of quantity representation accuracy at various levels of general education was analyzed. The results of the analysis showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics of computerized tests, which indicates their reliability and makes them suitable for application at the primary, basic and full levels of general education.