Can Bilingual Books Promote Self-Paced Foreign Language Learning: A Qualitative Study
Küçük Resim Yok
Tarih
2023
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
Dergi ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
Nobel Academic Publishing
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Özet
Books that include multiple languages have been published in various languages since the 1980s in the United States, mainly for the Latino population to promote language learning and literacy (Ernst-Slavit and Mulhern, 2023) and recently have started to become popular. Bilingual texts may benefit language learners since embedded translations may help increase grammatical awareness, provide L1 preview, support L1 positive transfer and even promote L1 identity. Considering some advantages of bilingual books, this qualitative study examined if bilingual texts can be a good and cheap option for self-paced language study. 6 EFL learners without Spanish knowledge were asked to study 2 bilingual books (Spanish-Turkish) for 10 weeks. Their progress was tracked through their personal reflections periodically. A semi-structured interview was employed at the end of a 10-week period to scrutinize their recommendations and opinions. The results showed some pros of these texts, such as cost, ease of use and direct translation of sentences. These materials, however, were not without cons. The participants emphasized a lack of quality and visuals, inefficiency when not complemented with a language course, complexity of grammar and verb inflections despite translations and lack of motivation due to daily routines. The participants also reported that adopting an intense study strategy, such as writing and taking notes on grammar and vocabulary, may be very time-consuming and tedious. In conclusion, bilingual books for self-paced study were found to have a number of challenging issues and it was best to use them as supplementary material to any language course.
Açıklama
Anahtar Kelimeler
Bilingual text, grammar, Spanish, translation
Kaynak
Innovative Practices To Improve Efl Reading Skills
WoS Q Değeri
N/A
