Exploring english teachers' creativity in classroom practices and assessments: a multifaceted approach utilizing bloom's taxonomy

This study aims to explore and investigate University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors’ perceptions of enhancing and improving EFL learners’ oral proficiency in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia and real-life communication. The researcher used a mixed-method approach to achieve the aim of the study. The quantitative method involves the construction of a structured questionnaire based on the EFL instructors’ views to enhance the students’ oral proficiency and was distributed among 30 EFL teachers from Majmaah University. In the quantitative phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with a subset of 6 EFL instructors to gain deeper insights into EFL instructors’ perceptions of improving EFL learners’ oral proficiency. The findings of the study explored that, EFL instructors at Majmaah University agreed that oral proficiency is the most important aspect of overall language proficiency, and they used various strategies to improve the students’ oral proficiency with a clear preference for role-playing, presentations, group discussions, and debates. The findings also stated some problems and challenges such as limited class time, large class sizes, and low student motivation faced by EFL instructors to improve learners’ oral proficiency. The study finally, recommends including the incorporation of more communicative activities, the integration of technology, and the provision of professional development workshops. The findings of the study can give a path to provide some new strategies to overcome the problems and challenges faced by EFL instructors for enhancing EFL learners’ oral proficiency.

Creativity is significant in education as it makes learners to fully concentrate throughout the learning and teaching process. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of smart board in enhancing Technology teachers’ creativity in the classroom. The theory of creativity was used as a lens to view the study, and the 9E instructional model which was used to guide and understand classroom activities. The study used a qualitative research approach and the case study design to gather and analyze data. The semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from four schools which were purposively sampled because they had smart boards. Four Technology teachers and eight learners were the participants in the study. To analyze the data, deductive content analysis was used. The findings of the study revealed that both teachers and learners perceived the smart board as effective in enhancing Technology teachers’ creativity in the classroom. Teachers and learners indicated that smart board can present lessons more interesting, exciting, effective and develop learners’ creative thinking skills. They could access the internet to search for online resources which include but are not limited to diagrams, pictures, online quizzes and YouTube videos to creatively present their lessons in the classroom. Different smart board programs such as the smart notebook, animation, PowerPoint presentations, and the show and hide feature can be used to enhance creativity. With the help of the smart board, teachers can use a variety of teaching methods to correct learners' misconceptions and further develop their creative thinking skills.

This article investigates a pedagogical interference in promoting creativity
 
 in English classroom that describe the importance of creativity in learning process. The article explores the idea of passion-based learning in improving creativity in the classroom specially in English subject. By using secondary data both from journals, books, and internet sites, researcher is able to apply descriptive analysis through literary review methods. Promoting passion-based learning might be a possible way to improve creativity in English Classroom. Passion-based learning could be a solution that give ownership and authority to students to explore their own creativity in the classroom hence give them meaningful learning. Some tangible ways in this article could be applied by English teachers to create passion-based learning in English classroom that can improve the students’ reading, listening, speaking and writing skill and creativity. The emerging challenge found in this study is passion-based learning is difficult to apply in large class since it gives freedom to students choose what they want to learn hence classroom activities will not be feasible to control. Besides, passion- based learning needs creative and skilful teachers to come up with various and interesting ideas to stimulate dynamic in classroom. Therefore, the quality of teacher is highly considered in applying passion-based learning. Teachers should be expert in subjects they teach. Promoting teacher professional development need to be considered to improve creativity in English classroom with given English teachers’ opportunities to explore their potentials.

<p>Two important areas of professional development for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia identified in the 2003 Law on National Education System and 2005 Law on Teachers and Lecturers are disciplinary knowledge and ICT skills. The present thesis investigates institutional and individual aspects of EFL teacher professional development (TPD) in Indonesia in relation to the development of these two areas of expertise. Three studies were carried out. The first study measured Indonesian EFL teachers’ target language (English) proficiency as a core component of their professional knowledge and how it is maintained and developed by the teachers. EFL teachers’ language proficiency in this study was operationalised as their lexical, reading and writing proficiency and measured using the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), IELTS-like reading comprehension test and IELTS-like academic writing test, respectively. The results showed that the teachers’ length of service correlated negatively with their knowledge of academic vocabulary, as well as reading and writing proficiency, indicating issues with the outcomes of the TPD in this area. To triangulate the test results, teacher perceptions data were also gathered using questionnaires and interviews. It was found that the EFL teachers tended to overestimate their own overall English language proficiency. The second study used a longitudinal blogging activity with the EFL teachers as a form of personal professional development that targeted their English language and ICT skills while reflecting on topics related to their professional (teaching) activities. Qualitative analysis of the blog entries of three EFL teachers suggested that the individual teachers’ blogging, critical reading and reflective writing skills were very uneven. Interviews with nine teachers and 11 educational stakeholders were then conducted to understand their views on blogging as a form of professional development. The results revealed that the perceived obstacles and drawbacks outweighed the perceived benefits of blogging as a form of personal professional development. The third study examined Indonesian national TPD policy documents, how these policies were translated into local professional development programmes in Malang district. It was found that the needs for EFL teachers to maintain their English proficiency and ICT skills were only partially addressed in TPD policy and implementation. In addition, the interviewed teachers and stakeholders perceived the definitions, goals, administration, evaluation, benefits, and challenges of TPD differently. Taken as a whole, the present findings show that institutional implementation of TPD policies in Indonesia needs to better target individual EFL teachers’ English proficiency and ICT skills, and that opportunities for better professional development need to be sought at both personal and institutional levels. At the individual level, self-motivation to continue learning is crucial for English language teachers who want to keep up with change and innovation in English language teaching. At the institutional level, needs analyses and environmental analyses are essential in designing programs for maintaining and developing teacher professional competency.</p>

The purpose of the present study is to explore cross-cultural differences among teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) on the basic language constructs and the impacts on their perceived teaching ability in English-reading instruction. Chinese EFL (n = 73) and Korean EFL (n = 39) teachers were administered the Reading Teacher Knowledge Survey for testing their implicit and explicit knowledge on phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, and morphological awareness; and their self-perceived teaching ability on teaching typical readers, struggling readers, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Results showed that both Chinese EFL and Korean EFL teachers' knowledge on the phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonics was implicit rather than explicit. However, the teachers' knowledge on morphological awareness showed cross-cultural difference: Chinese EFL teachers had greater explicit knowledge on morphological awareness than implicit knowledge, while their Korean EFL counterparts showed opposite pattern. Self-perceived teaching ability was also distinct cross-culturally, in that Chinese EFL teachers were only confident in teaching English vocabulary, whereas Korean EFL teachers had generally positive self-perception on teaching typical readers, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Importantly, both groups of EFL teachers' explicit knowledge on the basic language constructs explained additional variance for predicting their self-perception on teaching English reading, controlling for the effects of their years of teaching and implicit knowledge. Educational implications and future research ideas are discussed in relation to the cross-cultural differences of teacher knowledge and their perceived teaching ability.

In recent years, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been emphasised, specifically in English language teaching. Therefore, investigating English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of ESD is a fundamental first step in developing effective EFL curricula and teaching policies. Consequently, this study delved into the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), examining its role in EFL teaching methodologies and identifying the challenges faced in integrating ESD within the Turkish educational context. In-depth interview data (IDI) was collected from 28 in-service Turkish EFL teachers. Utilising qualitative content analysis (QCA) with open, axial, and selective coding, we found out that Turkish EFL teachers’ perceptions of ESD are multifaceted and shaped by the interdisciplinary nature of EFL teaching, which is fed by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The findings showed that EFL teachers: (1) conceptualised ESD as being related to learning for sustainable practices addressing social, economic and environmental dimensions, and linked ESD to a lifelong learning process that should be implemented at all education levels and supported by critical thinking and problem-solving skills; (2) thought English classes provide ideal venues to teach multiple topics including sustainability, thus reported it as a key responsibility for them to instil in their students, and (3) felt that ESD has yet to be sufficiently reflected in EFL curriculum due to some obstacles such as narrow focus on ESD, limited contact hours of English and lack of parental awareness of ESD. The findings mainly emphasised the significance of an extensive and holistic coverage of ESD at all education levels through engaging and hands-on in-class activities. Further practical suggestions are also provided regarding how EFL teaching policies may be developed to better integrate ESD.

Feminist pedagogy, which emerged in the United States in the 1980s, is an-anti oppressive pedagogy that invites students to build community, fosters an inclusive learning environment for everyone to succeed and lead, and encourages power sharing among and between students and teachers. With feminism spreading and varying across the world, feminist pedagogy advertently or inadvertently manifests itself in the work of some English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. Feminist pedagogy has received popularity in English classrooms all over the world, which is evidenced by increasing research on the topic (e.g., Vandrick, 1994, 1995, 2016; Yoshihara, 2013, 2014, 2017) Despite interest in this topic, there is limited research on whether and how feminist pedagogy is understood and applied by ESL and EFL teachers, who may or may not identify as feminists or have any particular training in feminist theory. In this exploratory study, I pose two research questions such as “How do ESL and EFL instructors understand feminist pedagogy?” and “In what ways do ESL and EFL instructor apply feminist pedagogy?” to examine what ESL and EFL teachers in the United States and Russia think of feminist pedagogy, whether they apply feminist pedagogy practices consciously or unconsciously, and how feminist pedagogy can shape ESL and EFL curricula. For my primary research, I conducted semi-structured interviews with four ESL and three EFL instructors from the United States and Russia, respectively, over Zoom. I then applied thematic coding and thematic analysis to analyze their responses and to discover overarching themes across all seven interviews. The themes that arose show how instructors from both English language teaching settings and both countries understand and apply feminist pedagogy in their classroom. The instructors’ responses add and challenge the existing definitions of feminist pedagogy by expanding into the realm of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Further research into ESL and EFL teachers’ understandings and applications of feminist pedagogy is, however, needed to establish or question the connection between what the participants say during the interview, i.e. beliefs or teaching beliefs, and what they actually do in their classrooms, i.e., teaching practices.

The recent decades have seen enthusiastic calls for reconceptualizing English as a foreign language (EFL) education, taking into account the current socio-lingual status of English and how it is used genuinely for communication interculturally and internationally. However, a wide gap still exists between promulgation such as intelligibility over nativelikeness in pronunciation instruction and realities in the EFL classroom. The study investigated pre- and in-service teachers’ cognition about accents and the incorporation of different accents in their classrooms. One hundred and sixty-six EFL teachers (89 pre-service and 77 in-service) from Hong Kong and Guangdong (a province in China) completed a questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, the teachers’ overall attitude was neutral rather than positive towards General American (GA) / Received Pronunciation (RP)1 associated with EFL teachers’ accents and EFL education. Only two thirds of the teachers were certain about which accents to use and to teach in listening and pronunciation lessons (i.e. as many as one third were uncertain). Also, the participants were neutral about incorporating non-GA/RP accents into EFL lessons, with around one third objecting to doing so. Although no differences were found between pre- and in-service teachers’ cognition, additional analysis revealed that teachers’ individual background variables, namely teaching experience, self-rated language proficiency, and knowledge of sound systems (IPA for English; pinyin for Mandarin), have significant correlations with their cognition.

In contemporary secondary EFL (English as a Foreign Language) education, formative assessments play a critical role in enhancing students' language proficiency. This research explores the perceptions and experiences of EFL students in Sidoarjo regarding formative assessment practices. The central research question focuses on how students' perceptions and experiences with formative assessments influence their engagement and language development. Employing a phenomenological approach, qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 25 secondary EFL students. Thematic analysis identified recurring patterns and themes, providing a comprehensive understanding of how these students perceive and experience formative assessment practices. Findings reveal that students perceive their experiences with interactive tools like Kahoot! and Quizizz as highly engaging and motivating, which they believe contributes to a more dynamic and participatory learning environment. Additionally, students' experiences with timely and constructive feedback were pivotal in helping them recognize and correct mistakes, thereby improving their language skills. Peer assessment and self-reflection were also seen as fostering a more student-centered learning environment, though some students encountered challenges in consistently understanding and applying these methods. These challenges underscore the need for better support and resources to ensure effective implementation. The research concludes that well-designed formative assessments, when aligned with students' perceptions and experiences, can substantially improve engagement and language proficiency. Recommendations include integrating interactive tools, emphasizing constructive feedback, and promoting peer assessment and self-reflection. Future research should explore the long-term impacts of formative assessments on EFL learning outcomes. This study underscores the transformative potential of formative assessments in EFL education and advocates for continuous support to enhance their effective implementation.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has constituted a major part of the curriculum in private and public institutions in Saudi Arabia for over eight decades. More recently, the emergence of English as a global language has made it a socially desirable language in Saudi society, as elsewhere in the world. However, despite the long history of English teaching in Saudi Arabia and the growth of the profession over the years, the overall English proficiency level of the majority of students is low and unsatisfactory. Saudi researchers have reported many reasons for the ineffectiveness of English Language Teaching (ELT) including, but not limited to, low levels of student motivation, negative attitudes toward English, a substandard English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, and inefficient teacher pedagogical practices. These problems fall into two major categories: problems related to the lwhyr of teaching and learning of EFL, and problems related to the lhowr of teaching and learning EFL. In investigating these issues, much of this research has been carried out within individual/psychological/structuralist/positivist frameworks, which has failed not only to problematize the complexity of such constructs but also to appreciate the fact that all realities are produced/(re)produced via ldiscourser. Hence, the present study investigated EFL teaching and learning practices by employing Foucauldian and poststructuralist frameworks. This study used poststructuralism not only as a theoretical lens per se, but also established it through the implemented analytical tools and textual representations of the collected data. Employing a poststructuralist discursive perspective made it possible to view EFL teaching and learning as complex social practices, interacting with the discourses of English and ELT practices available in the global as well as the local context(s). These discourses create the nexus between power and knowledge and impact on what an EFL teacher/ learner does within a classroom setting by constructing perspectives of reality through which he or she comes to understand the EFL teaching and learning process in certain ways which constitute epistemological spaces and generate particular practices. Drawing on policy documents, EFL textbooks, classroom observations, interviews with two Saudi EFL teachers, and focus group discussions with Saudi EFL students in two rural areas, the study identified seven discourses circulating within and competing across the examined discursive spaces. The first three discourses are related to English and its values, including: English as a universal language; English as the language for better employment opportunities; and English as the language for spreading religion. The remaining four discourses centred around ELT with exams as an important aspect of EFL learning and ELT; CLT as the key to success in ELT; L1 as a barrier to successful EFL learning; and EFL textbooks as an essential aspect of the processes of EFL learning and ELT. In exploring the production and (re)production of these discourses through the examination of how visibilization, normalisation, exclusionary/inclusionary acts, classification, and subject positioning as discursive strategies are employed, it was found that whether a particular discourse was made visible or invisible depended on other discourses operating across the examined discursive spaces: the social context, the policy, the textbook, the classroom, and the teachers and students. The analysis of the connection(s) and misconnection(s) between these discursive spaces demonstrated that the interplay between the different discourses constructed discursive battlegrounds, which impacted the processes of EFL teaching and learning. Through the investigation of this interplay, it was found that there was a disconnect and an ambivalent relationship between the study participantsr espoused discourses of English and their EFL teaching and learning practices, suggesting that EFL teachers and learners should not be considered lstabler figures, but rather as social agents with discursively constructed ever changing subjectivities. Furthermore, the analyses of the constructions of the discourses operating within the examined policy texts demonstrate an intra disparity and fragmentation. This was manifested in the difference between the ideals of the EFL curriculum and the institutionally imposed regulating techniques, that is, examinations and teachersr assessment practices which had negative effects on EFL teaching and learning dynamics. Additionally, as a consequence of the competition between the different sources of discursive constructions, I found that there was a gulf between the EFL policies and the enactment of these policies in EFL teaching and learning dynamics in the observed EFL classrooms. The findings of this study also indicate that if a discourse promoted through the policy is mediated by discourses operating in the larger societal context, it became more visible in teaching and learning practices as compared to other discourses that did not have social moorings. This suggests that taking the prevailing social expectations into account at the stage of developing any policy is of paramount importance.nThe study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the interplay of connections and misconnections between competing discourses across different spaces in Saudi educational settings for improving the EFL teaching/learning environments in Saudi Arabia and other similar contexts.n

Through the lens of teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in China, this chapter aims to examine what knowledge of technology EFL teachers at all levels possess and how they apply their technological knowledge in teaching practice. The reviewed literature indicated that most EFL teachers hold positive attitudes towards technology. However, there still exists a gap between the curriculum requirement and the reality in terms of technological pedagogy in EFL teaching context. EFL teachers' use of technology in teaching varies in terms of personal preferences, school levels and locations, and administrative support. In addition, this review revealed that several factors influence EFL teachers' integration of technology into their practice and some challenges are still on the way: 1) EFL teachers' knowledge of technology is insufficient; 2) Lack of resources for schools and teachers at less developed areas, and 3) Lack of specific support for EFL teachers' technological needs.

Although teacher burnout has drawn the attention of many researchers, there is little empirical evidence for the contribution of non-native English language teachers’ language proficiency level to their experience of burnout. To address this significant gap, the present study examined the relationship between English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ self-assessed language proficiency and their experience of burnout. Research has indicated that personal resources of teachers can function as protectors against their experience of burnout. Thus, it was assumed that investigating how EFL teachers’ level of burnout can be reduced through language proficiency as a personal resource can cast a new light on the role of personal resources in reducing teachers’ experience of burnout. To this end, data were collected from 110 Iranian EFL teachers who were teaching in private language institutes through the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Educator Survey and Iranian EFL Teacher Self-Reported Language Proficiency Scale. The correlational analysis revealed that language proficiency had a significant negative relationship with the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions and a significant positive relationship with the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout. The results of regression analysis also indicated that, except for the reading subskill, all the other proficiency subskills were the best predictors of the different dimensions of burnout. Based on the findings of the current study, some pedagogical implications and research suggestions were also proposed.

This study aimed to investigate how tertiary TEFL teacher education students‟ evaluative language competence can be extended through explicit teaching of linguistic descriptions of resources for expressing attitudinal meanings in English. In particular, it sought to determine how tertiary TEFL courses informed by the Appraisal framework (Martin & White, 2005) and text-based pedagogy (Feez & De Silva Joyce, 2012) can be designed and implemented to improve students‟ evaluative language competence. It also aimed to examine how such courses can extend students‟ evaluative language repertoires, and how students can discuss their understanding and use of the language of evaluation using their metaknowledge of Appraisal. In pursuit of these aims, I implemented over two fifteen-week interventions explicit teaching of evaluative resources, focusing on Attitude and Graduation within Appraisal to the same group of TEFL first-year teacher education students at Quy Nhon University, Vietnam. The explicit teaching of Attitude and Graduation followed the teaching sequences using the teaching-learning model I adapted based on integrating the Scaffolding interaction cycle (Martin & Rose, 2005) into the text-based cycle of teaching and learning (Feez & De Silva Joyce, 2012). I also adopted Appraisal as the coding scheme and the UAM Corpus Tool developed by Michael O‟Donnell (2013) as an electronic linguistics annotation tool for investigating affordances of Attitude and Graduation resources in reading texts and in students‟ writing. The study found that before the interventions, the students from both intervention and non-intervention groups had similar limited repertoires for evaluation expressions, which were reflected through their repetition of a restricted number of different instantiations for Attitude and frequent use of basic isolated grammatical items for Graduation. After the interventions, however, there was a significant development of the intervention students (IS) compared to the non-intervention students (NS) in Attitude and Graduation deployment. The IS employed not only more numerous different instantiations for Attitude, but also a more diverse range of semantic infusion, grammatical and lexical items for Graduation. More importantly, these IS could provide linguistic descriptions of some Appraisal aspects and employ their metaknowledge of Appraisal to talk about the development of their own deployment of Attitude and Graduation across the writing tests. Of particular interest is the impressive improvement of the low achieving IS to approximate the performance of the high achieving IS and even to overtake the performance of the high achieving NS. This empirical study has made a professional innovation to teaching pedagogies in that it adapted the teaching-learning model for explicit teaching of evaluation based on combining the Scaffolding interaction cycle (Martin & Rose, 2005) and the text-based cycle of teaching and learning (Feez & De Silva Joyce, 2012). It also has important professional implications in fundamental aspects of TEFL such as shifts in policies, professional development, teaching practices, English textbook design and English test assessment in the context of teaching and learning EFL in Vietnam. In terms of policy shift, it raises a call for review of several aspects of TEFL such as current teaching practices, curriculum, resources and teachers‟ expertise. With regard to professional development, it alerts university English teacher educators and practising teachers of English to be aware of the necessity to equip themselves with knowledge about English language and update with relevant pedagogical approaches in their lifelong professional development. In relation to English textbook design, evaluative language was found to be inadequately attended to in Solutions Intermediate and Solutions Upper-Intermediate (Falla & Davies, 2013a, 2013b), the textbooks of English being used in most tertiary institutions in Vietnam. The compensatory additional resources provided in the intervention can serve to inform curriculum designers and textbook editors of the need to incorporate intentionally selected reading texts and thoughtfully designed activities with the aim to make evaluative language more explicit. Regarding English language teaching, the study indicated the poor repertoires of evaluation expressions of even advanced students of English in Vietnam, and it demonstrated that the restricted repertoires of the students could be developed through implementing the courses I designed with various activities to engage students such as multimodal texts and video recording of student improvised drama and their reflective review of their work on the videos. In terms of assessment of English, the study draws attention to the need for test designers to include evaluative language within assessment criteria and make it an explicit requirement in designated test questions. These implications are expected to bridge the gap between teaching-learning experience in the English classroom, criteria in English assessment tests, and real-life English language demands.

The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Jordan towards using webinars as professional development tools in comparing with international EFL teachers. A quantitative study was conducted with (60) EFL teachers, (44) EFL teachers were from Jordan and (16) EFL teachers were from different countries around the world. An online questionnaire which is adapted from Emre’s thesis (2019) was distributed via WhatsApp and Telegram applications. The data has analyzed using descriptive statistics via SPSS statistics. This study was conducted in Amman- Jordan in (2020-2021). The results showed that female and males EFL teachers who have additional courses and who have attended webinars were positive towards using webinars as professional development tools and Jordanian EFL teachers revealed moderate attitudes in comparing with international EFL teachers. This study suggested to encourage Jordanian EFL teachers to attend webinars for professional development by supporting and facilitating conditions, reward teachers who attend webinars and conduct persistent research in order to have different experiences to support the results of the upcoming researches.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning MALL is an emerging area of study in the field of Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching ELT. Latest mobile technologies are being exploited in English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy and learning at various levels. The said phenomenon made a strong case for the present case study to scrutinize the attitude of the modern day EFL learners and teachers in Sialkot, Pakistan. The study investigates their acceptance or rejection for the selected MALL technologies in EFL learning and teaching. For the said purpose Sixty EFL undergraduate and nine EFL teachers were randomly selected from three renowned institutes of the city for data collection. A three sectioned questionnaire was developed for EFL learners on Likert scale with a special reference to perceived usefulness PU and perceived ease of use PEOU of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) prescribed by Davis (1989) as data collection tool. TAM measures the attitude of users for their acceptance or rejection for any new technology or system. For EFL teachers an interview questionnaire was developed comprising eight open ended questions to record (in audio) their spontaneous responses for the phenomenon. The results reflect that EFL learners show a positive attitude towards perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) for the use of smart phones than laptop computers for different EFL learning purposes. On the other hand, EFL teachers show their strong inclination towards the use of laptop computers rather than smart phones for EFL teaching and learning.