Papers by Muhammad Fareed
International Research and Publishing Academy, 2023
International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) stands neutral with regard to jurisdictiona... more International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) stands neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in the published maps and institutional affiliations.
International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) stands neutral with regard to jurisdictiona... more International Research and Publishing Academy (iRAPA) stands neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in the published maps and institutional affiliations.
Causes of English Language Writing Anxiety among ESL Undergraduate Students in Pakistan
Journal of Education & Social Sciences, Oct 1, 2017
Journal of Education and Educational Development, 2018
English language is taught as a compulsory subject up to graduate level in Pakistani educational ... more English language is taught as a compulsory subject up to graduate level in Pakistani educational system. Despite studying English for over 14 years, majority of students coming from non-elite schools, lack required command in English language skills to pursue their higher education and professional careers. With this background in mind, the current research focused on teaching English reading and writing skills and the problems faced while teaching these skills at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) level in private non-elite schools in Karachi. The sample of the study comprised 20 SSC level students, 12 SSC level English language teachers of non-elite private schools and 5 student notebooks. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires, group interviews and notebook analysis. Data were examined using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that teaching English language reading practices include reading the text aloud, translating the chapter, providing the central idea an...
Journal of Education & Social Sciences, 2016
Writing is an important skill for language production. However, it is considered a difficult skil... more Writing is an important skill for language production. However, it is considered a difficult skill, particularly in English as a second language (ESL) contexts where students face many challenges in writing. Therefore, the present study was conducted with an aim to investigate problems in Pakistani undergraduate ESL learners' writing and factors that hinder their writing skills. It also aimed at obtaining suggestions on how to improve Pakistani ESL learners' writing skills. For this purpose, focus groups of Pakistani English language teachers'and undergraduate ESL learners were conducted. Writing samples were also collected from 30 ESL undergraduate learners to find the major problems in their writing. The interviews and essays were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings reveal that the major problems in Pakistani undergraduate ESL learners' writing are insufficient linguistic proficiency (including command over grammar, syntax and vocabulary), writing anxiety, lack of ideas, reliance on L1 and weak structure organization. These challenges are influenced by various factors including untrained teachers, ineffective teaching methods and examination system, lack of reading and writing practice, large classrooms, low motivation and lack of ideas. The study also sheds light on the remedial measures such as increased reading, conscious and incidental vocabulary teaching, writing practice, trained teachers, reforms in the examination system, and writing competitions.
Pakistan Business Review, 2018
Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today’s linguistic scenario. When languages a... more Multilingualism has become a significant feature of today’s linguistic scenario. When languages are in contact, one of them tends to dominate the others on account of the role given or due to the attitude of the language users. Language contact results in language-mixing. Language-mixing in formal, written, corpora in Pakistan manifests the spread of English. The present study aimed to investigate frequency of the occurrence of language-mixing in Urdu newspapers. Thus it investigated the extent to which language-mixing is prevalent and the processes it takes when it occurs in Pakistani Urdu newspapers. Two Urdu newspapers (published in morning) were taken (from February 1 to 15, 2014) as sample. The data from Urdu newspapers for linguistic analysis were analyzed through content analysis. The findings of the study showed that language-mixing is frequently done in Urdu newspapers and it takes various processes-insertion, hybridization and synthesis.
Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021
English language writing skills play a significant role in academic and professional lives in the... more English language writing skills play a significant role in academic and professional lives in the ESL context. Anxiety can have debilitating effects on learning English language listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. The objective of the current study was to explore the causes of writing anxiety in Pakistani undergraduate ESL students. The data for this study were collected from Pakistani ESL students and English language teachers in Karachi with asample that had both public and private-sector representation. Group interviews were held to collect the data. Interview protocols were designed for the interviews of the students and the teachers and checked for self-validity and expert validity. Three group interviews were carried out with the undergraduate ESL students and two with the ESL English language teachers. All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Respondent validation technique was used for the transcription and similarly, inter-coder reliability wa...
Journal of Education & Social Sciences, 2016
Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during... more Code-Switching is generally defined as a shift from one language to another by the speaker during the speech. It is a common linguistic phenomenon in Pakistani classrooms. It is considered to have both positive and negative impact. This exploratory study investigated the perceptions of Pakistani students towards teachers' code-switching during English lectures at tertiary level. Students have different attitudes towards code-switching of teachers in classroom. There is a need to investigate whether it is beneficial or malevolent to switch between two codes in an English classroom and how the students view this alternation between codes. The researchers employed 5point Likert scale questionnaire along with 12 open ended questions to investigate the perceptions of the students towards code-switching of English language teachers during lecture. The findings of the study revealed positive attitude of the students towards teachers' code-switching, however some of the students were of the view that code-switching by teachers restricts their exposure to English.
Journal of Management Sciences, 2019
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching is considered a separate activity in the domain of E... more English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching is considered a separate activity in the domain of English Language Teaching (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). ESP primarily aims to prepare and fulfill a set of the communicative needs of ESP learners in academic and professional contexts. These needs serve as a guide to design relevant course content and adopt appropriate teaching method with particular emphasis on the kind of English to be taught and the topics to be covered. The current study attempts to investigate through the perceptions of ESP teachers and ESP learners the effective role of Subject Matter Specialists (henceforth SMSs) in the teaching of ESP courses at postgraduate level in Pakistan. The sample size taken for this study comprises of 10 ESP teachers selected through snowball sampling technique and 50 ESP learners chosen through purpose sampling from three different disciplines of management sciences. Open ended questionnaire and interviews were used for data collection. The data were thematically analyzed. The analysis of ESP teachers' data suggested English language competence, pedagogic competence and awareness of the learners' prospective communicative needs in academic and workplace contexts. The analysis of ESP learners' data indicated that Subject Matter Specialists (henceforth SMSs) along with content area knowledge need to have good command of English language as well. From the comparative analyses of ESP teachers and ESP learners' data, this study concludes that for effective ESP teaching to any group of ESP learners, an ESP teacher irrespective of the academic background (ELTs or Subject Matter Specialists) needs to have English language competence, pedagogic skills and how much they know about the learners' target communicative needs.
Within the wider academic framework of English language teaching, the conceptual term 'ESP' is ge... more Within the wider academic framework of English language teaching, the conceptual term 'ESP' is generally considered to mean "English for Specific Purposes" (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). ESP is primarily an umbrella term which covers domain specific English literacy skills. For meaningful communication in academic and professional contexts, students of medicine and engineering are required to have context specific English language skills (Niazi,
Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, 2020
Pakistan is among the countries where number of English language users is on rapid growth. Despit... more Pakistan is among the countries where number of English language users is on rapid growth. Despite English has been an influential language in Pakistan since its independence, learners face difficulties in almost every area of English language learning: Listening, reading, writing and speaking referring to just basic skills of English language. This study focuses on one of the four basic skills: Writing. It measures levels of writing anxiety of Pakistani undergraduate students while writing essays on various topics in English. In this study, 418 students participated which represents both public and private sector universities. Cheng (2004) SLWAI’s instrument was adopted to answer the research questions. Data analysis revealed that majority of the total participants, 61.48 percent has average level of English language writing anxiety. On the other hand, 19.38 percent of the total participants at undergraduate level face high level of English language writing anxiety. Minimum 19.14 p...
Pakistan Journal of Educational Research, 2021
Peer feedback is considered a reliable method in developing the learner's English language wr... more Peer feedback is considered a reliable method in developing the learner's English language writing skills (Falchikov, 2005; Goldfinch, 2000; Moshontz, & Cooper, 2017; Sanchez, Atkinson, Koenka). It provides a collaborative learning environment, fosters learners’ autonomy and reduces anxiety among students (Phillipson, 2007; Richards& Schmidt, 2010; Stubb, 2013). Nevertheless, the use of peer feedback to improve ESL learners’ writing skills is a multifaceted process and needs pre feedback assistaance. The efficacy of peer feedback depends on a range of factors such as the learning setting, the learner, and the assessment procedure itself (Ossenberg, Henderson, & Mitchell, 2018). Various studies have suggested positive perceptions of peer feedback (Rotsaert, Panadero & Schellens, 2018; Vanderhoven, Raes, Montrieux, Rotsaert & Schellens, 2015). This study aimed to take the perceptions of Pakistani Postgraduate ESL learners’ about peer feedback on their writing skills. Before data c...
Journal of Education Social Sciences, 2014
This paper investigates the levels of oral communication anxiety of undergraduate engineering stu... more This paper investigates the levels of oral communication anxiety of undergraduate engineering students in Pakistan. The data was collected from four departments of the university. McCroskey (1978) oral Communication Apprehension (OCA) Survey Instrument was adopted for this study. The questionnaire was translated into Urdu (National Language of Pakistan) to make it clear to respondents. The data analysis revealed 18% of the sample had a high level of oral communication apprehension, 66% faced an average level of oral communication apprehension and 16% were in a low level of oral communication apprehension. This study also discloses that there is no significant difference in levels of oral communication apprehension of male and female. Further the study reports and compares levels of oral communication anxiety of the students to whom English is the second language and to whom English is the third language (both in foreign language context). Finally, the study concludes that although the majority of the undergraduate engineering students face an average level of oral communication apprehension, however, with attention and guidance they can be brought to low level of oral communication apprehension category.
Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021
English language writing skills play asignificant role in academic and professional lives in the ... more English language writing skills play asignificant role in academic and professional lives in the ESL context.Anxiety can have debilitating effects on learning English language listening, reading, speakingand writing skills.The objective of the current study was to explorethe causes of writing anxiety in Pakistani undergraduateESL students. The data for this study were collected from Pakistani ESL students and English language teachers in Karachi with asample that had both public and private-sector representation. Group interviews were held to collect the data. Interview protocolswere designed for the interviews of the students and the teachersand checked for self-validity and expert validity. Three groupinterviews were carried out with the undergraduateESL students and two with the ESL English language teachers. All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Respondent validation technique was used for the transcription and similarly, inter-coder reliability was carried ...
Journal of Education and Educational Development, 2018
English language is taught as a compulsory subject up to graduate level in Pakistani educational ... more English language is taught as a compulsory subject up to graduate level in Pakistani educational system. Despite studying English for over 14 years, majority of students coming from non-elite schools, lack required command in English language skills to pursue their higher education and professional careers. With this background in mind, the current research focused on teaching English reading and writing skills and the problems faced while teaching these skills at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) level in private non-elite schools in Karachi. The sample of the study comprised 20 SSC level students, 12 SSC level English language teachers of non-elite private schools and 5 student notebooks. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires, group interviews and notebook analysis. Data were examined using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that teaching English language reading practices include reading the text aloud, translating the chapter, providing the central idea an...
IoBM, 2021
The quality of language produced is greatly influenced by the quality of language input. Reading ... more The quality of language produced is greatly influenced by the quality of language input. Reading is a major source of language and knowledge input. In Pakistan, two types of books written in the English language are available for the reader. The first type includes the books written and published in Pakistan and the second type is of the books written by foreign authors published in or outside Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to analyze 5 storybooks written and published in Pakistan. The linguistic analysis and technical analysis of the books were carried out to explore the kind of material which is being produced locally and is readily available to Pakistani children. The focus of the study was on the English language and technical components of the storybooks. The findings of the study reveal that the storybooks contain several language-related problems and technical deficiencies in story writing elements. Hence it is concluded that proofreading for language and technical refinement for the storybooks can help improve the work quality.
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Papers by Muhammad Fareed