Integrating technology-mediated language learning tasks into the young learner English as a foreign language classroom

The use of the first language (L1) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom is becoming an on-going debate. A newly growing view to the use of L1 in the foreign language (FL) classroom called translanguaging views that by utilizing the L1 along with the TL in FL classroom is considered as functional practice of languages rather than an impediment in FL learning. Accordingly it is necessary to find out the functions of teachers’ practice of translanguaging in the EFL classroom since this view has not been much researched yet. Related to this, the current study was intended to find out the functions of the EFL teachers’ translanguaging and to find out the teachers’ reasons for the use of translanguaging. This study followed qualitative descriptive interactive research design, and the subjects consisted of three English teachers at the 7th grade classes at two junior high schools in Singaraja. The data were collected through observations and interviews and were analyzed descriptive qualitatively. The results of this study showed that there were 3 functions of translanguaging. The most frequent function was related to knowledge construction, followed by classroom management, and interpersonal relations. There were 9 reasons for the teachers’ use of translanguaging, namely: to facilitate students’ understanding, to provide L1 and TL comparison, to elicit students’ responses, to attract students’ attention, tomanage students, to promote discipline, to develop deeper personal relationship, to create secure classroom atmosphere, and to make the class more interesting. In sum, the use of translanguaging plays a number of functions in the EFL classroom but it should be considered also the ‘optimal’ use of it in EFL learning process because the overuse of L1 might bring negative impact.

<p style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of this study was to look into teachers' perceptions of code-switching functions and effects in English as a foreign language classroom. In the study, a descriptive survey design and an interview were used to investigate the functions and effects of code-switching in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. 46 people responded to the survey questionnaire about code-switching functions and their impact in the classroom. Seven teachers participated in the group interview. The interview findings revealed six functions and four effects of code-switching. According to the survey findings, the majority of teachers supported the use of code-switching in their classrooms because it served a useful purpose in the process of teaching and learning English. The findings also revealed that teachers believed code-switching provided a clear purpose and had a positive impact on instruction and language development in EFL classrooms by creating a sociable environment. It was also demonstrated that code-switching to teachers was effective in EFL classrooms and played an important role in English learning and teaching. The implications of the findings for EFL teachers and language learning settings were discussed.</p>

The English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom is composed of a mixture of people with various backgrounds and identities. Sexuality is increasingly recognised as a form of identity similar to other categorical forms such as class, gender and ethnicity. Based on the idea that ‘otherness’ related issues should be treated in the foreign language classroom as a means to achieve existential competence, the present study investigates the attitudes of Greek Cypriot EFL teachers towards the inclusion of gay- and lesbian-related topics in the EFL classroom. A 15-item questionnaire was designed and data was collected from 58 English language teachers in Cyprus. The results indicated that EFL teachers tended to have positive attitudes towards the use of gay- and lesbian-related topics in the classroom. Positive attitudes seemed to be caused by the belief that students would find such topics interesting and on the condition that they are part of the course-book. Negative attitudes seem to be formed because EFL teachers believe that they were ill-equipped to deal with the use of such topics and homophobia in the classroom. As it is generally teachers who play a large part in determining what constitutes allowable discourses in the classroom, their role becomes even more significant in evoking insights, enriching students’ educational experiences and creating an accepting classroom environment towards the discussion of gay- and lesbian-related topics.

In Indonesia, the use of only English as a medium of instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom is highly demanded. The present study investigates how code-switching is perceived by High School teachers in Kupang city, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, in teaching English. Specifically, it aims to find out the teachers’ beliefs and perceptions towards the use of Indonesian language (L1) as their pedagogical instrument in teaching English in EFL classrooms. To achieve that goal, 40 EFL teachers were asked to give their responses to a 24-item of questionnaire which focused on teachers’ roles and beliefs of code-switching applied in the EFL classroom. After analyzing the data, it was found that the teachers applied code-switching to serve pedagogical aims and to facilitate the EFL teaching and learning process. As a result, they used code-switching when explaining difficult words, encourage students’ participation and managing and organizing the classroom. Another finding was that, the teachers also believed that, the advantages in applying code-switching exaggerated the disadvantages in ELF classroom.

<p style="text-align:justify">Boredom is a commonly experienced unpleasant emotion in foreign language classrooms and may negatively influence students’ learning status and outcomes. Unfortunately, limited attention has been directed to classroom boredom among students while learning foreign languages. To address this gap, this study adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom boredom experienced by students. We invited 675 Chinese senior high school EFL students to participate in the questionnaire survey about their classroom boredom, and 4 of them voluntarily participated in semi-structured interviews. The results of quantitative data analyses indicate that Chinese senior high school EFL students experienced medium levels of classroom boredom, with male students feeling significantly more bored than females and no difference in boredom in terms of grade and class type. Qualitative data also reveal students’ preferences for challenging language learning activities and learner-centered pedagogy. Our findings shed light on ways of improving EFL learners’ classroom learning experiences and emotional status.</p>

The use of learners’ first language has been debated for years. Some of the researchers think that using learners’ first language can be a help for foreign language learning while others argue that it can be hindrance. Therefore, this study focuses on investigating students’ and teachers perceptions on the use of learners’ first language (L1) and problems they encountered in using English in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom context. The study involved 150 students of grade X and grade XI and two English teachers in a high school in rural Karawang, West Java. The data were collected through questionnaire, interviews, and classroom observation and were analyzed using mixed methods approach. The findings of the study reveal that the participants showed various responses related to the use of L1. The result of the study indicates that the participants perceive L1 as facilitating learning tool that can help both teachers and students in learning process. Thus, it is suggested that teachers should be able to not only use L1 wisely but also encourage their students to use more English in the classroom.

Purpose Digital multimodal composing (DMC) has received considerable attention in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. While empirical studies on DMC have been widely conducted, there is a scarcity of research specifically examining the experience of pre-service English teachers in employing DMC during their teaching practicum. They might be familiar with DMC concepts, yet their beliefs about implementing DMC-mediated language teaching in classroom settings is worth further investigation. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate the perspectives of three pre-service English teachers on DMC-mediated language teaching during their teaching practicum program. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a case study design and was conducted in a state Islamic university in East Java Province, Indonesia. A semi-structured interview was conducted with three pre-service English teachers to collect data about the beliefs of pre-service English teachers in implementing DMC in their teaching practicum. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings From the analysis, the study unveils three important findings: (1) pre-service teachers' awareness of implementing DMC in English classrooms, (2) pre-service teachers' pedagogical preference for DMC projects and (3) pre-service teachers' perceived challenges in teaching through DMC. Originality/value The study suggests that equipping pre-service teachers with adequate pedagogical competence in DMC will enhance their capacity for technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK).

In this article, I describe an online intercultural citizenship experience in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in Argentina. An action research project on the Malvinas/Falklands war fought between Argentina and the UK in 1982 was carried out in 2012. Through a comparative methodology involving Argentine and English foreign language classes, students develop a critical perspective on texts while they also create an international identification, different from their national/regional identifications. While the existing body of work on intercultural citizenship and criticality in the foreign language classroom is abundant in Europe, North America and Asia, empirical studies hardly exist in this region and one of the questions to be answered deals with the transferability of curriculum research across continents. After a description of the theoretical framework and the project itself, I present student samples and analysis that provide evidence that this intercultural citizenship project was fruitfully implemented for the first time in Argentinean Higher Education in the foreign language classroom. I then outline the significance of the project from the point of view of online intercultural communication and the theory of intercultural citizenship.

During the past thirty years or so, teacher education research has made significant contributions to the exploration of teachers' beliefs, and the relationship between teachers' beliefs and practices, which has produced important findings for both pre-service and in-service teacher education. This article reviews the research on pre-service teachers' beliefs and practices in the filed of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), extrapolating the complex relationship between EFL teachers' beliefs and practices. It begins with a discussion about the definition of belief, followed by an overview of the research history on teacher beliefs in general. After discussing the basic components of EFL teachers' beliefs, this article summarizes the empirical studies on pre-service teachers' beliefs and practices since 1990s, which reveals the diversity of the studies on EFL pre-service teachers' beliefs. Finally, the article outlines three perspectives from which EFL pre-service teacher education can be informed.

The potential for using artificial intelligence (AI) systems in education (including foreign language teaching and learning) poses new demands on 21st century pre-service teachers who need to be prepared to integrate it successfully in their classrooms. The current paper, therefore, aimed to examine the attitude and readiness of 52 Bulgarian pre-service foreign language teachers on using AI in English language instruction. Based on the data obtained, it was established that the pre-service teachers demonstrated a general positive disposition towards using AI tools in their foreign language lessons and declared their readiness to implement AI technologies in the foreign language classroom but lacked the skills and competencies needed to do so. The results also showed that teacher training institutions and policy makers on national level have to define the AI knowledge, competencies and skills of prospective teachers so that they could actively engage with AI ethically and meaningfully in their profession.

The study examines the reading comprehension activities in the Ugandan English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. It particularly analyses the activities that the learners of EFL participate in as part of their reading comprehension lessons. The study focusses on EFL learners from countries such as Congo, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Ethiopia, among others studying in Ugandan adult language schools. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the reading comprehension activities in the Ugandan EFL classroom and to establish the learners’ response to the reading comprehension activities used in the EFL class. Drawing on the transactional theory, the study analyses the reading comprehension activities and the learners’ response to them. The findings indicate that the most profound activities in the classes were pre-reading activities. In their order of frequency, pre-reading activities were the most profound in the classes observed, followed by while-reading and the post-reading activities, which were the least used. In the classes where reading activities were used, they excited the majority of the EFL learners and they paid attention to the lesson. The learners’ response to the activities was diverse with the majority expressing interest in the activities as others chose not to participate at all. The study recommends the use of more reading comprehension activities especially at the while- and post-reading comprehension stages of the lessons which were lacking in most of the classes observed. It further recommends involving the learners and putting into consideration their views during the identification and selection of reading comprehension activities to ensure their maximum participation in the reading comprehension activities

The past three decades have seen an increasing interest in negotiation for meaning as interactional processes which advance language acquisition. Motivated by this claim, a number of studies have set out to determine the tasks that best promote negotiations for meaning (NfMs). However, this research has mostly tended to investigate NfM under experimental conditions, leaving considerably unexplored the negotiated interactions that might take place in real English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. In response to this, the present study sets out to investigate the incidence and nature of NfM in three uncontrolled EFL classrooms. In examining several teacher- and learner-led speaking tasks at basic, intermediate and advanced levels, the findings indicate that the amount of NfM is lower than those reported in previous studies. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of the interactional data suggests that the NfM across proficiency levels was limited in nature, and thus did not provide learners with all the learning benefits inherent in negotiation for meaning. These findings raise intriguing questions as to teachers’ and learners’ opportunities to negotiate meaning during EFL classroom interactions, and ways through which they can promote negotiated interactions in their EFL classrooms.

This study examined the effect of anxiety reduction sessions conducted in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. EFL anxiety reduction sessions were developed based on two assumptions derived from a rational emotive therapy approach. The sessions consisted of three methods: (a) cognitive–affective talk, (b) reflective self-talk, and (c) positive self-talk. Eight classes of roughly 25 first-year undergraduate students were divided into two groups. During 6 weeks, students in the treatment group engaged in the three methods sequentially for two rounds, whereas those in the control group received regular instruction. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Quantitative data were collected by means of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) given before and after the six sequential sessions. Results of t-tests revealed that the FLCAS scores of the treatment group significantly decreased compared with those of the control group. To explore how the treatment group’s beliefs concerning EFL were modified through the anxiety reduction sessions, written scripts from the sessions were analysed using thematic analysis. Results suggested that the sessions were effective in reducing EFL students’ anxiety by changing irrational beliefs.

The soaring demand for intercultural competence (IC) in the globalized world has made it a key concern in foreign language education. Most existing training on IC has often focused on providing immersive intercultural experiences, equipping learners with cultural knowledge, and simulating intercultural situations. However, some of these approaches may not be feasible in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, nor are they effective to prepare learners to cope with the complexities and uncertainties in novel intercultural situations unless there specifically involves higher-order thinking. Thus, this study took a perspective of cultural metacognition and examined whether and how could an instructional design that highlighted cultural metacognition facilitate learners' IC development in an EFL classroom at the tertiary level in Chinese mainland. Fifty-eight undergraduate students enrolled in an English Listening, Viewing, and Speaking course were involved in the instruction, and questionnaires and focus groups were employed for the data collection. A paired sample t-test revealed that there was a significant enhancement in students' intercultural competence in terms of affective, metacognitive, and behavioral dimensions, but not in the knowledge dimension. Thematic analysis indicated that the instructional design was effective in supporting students' intentional knowledge acquiring, developing positive intercultural attitudes, and promoting the translation of cognition into actions. The findings thus confirmed that the instructional design featuring cultural metacognition can be used in domestic EFL contexts, such as College English classrooms at the tertiary level in Chinese mainland, as an effective way of enhancing learners' IC. This study also offered additional evidence of how students' IC development was achieved through a range of metacognitive processes, which may provide implications for teachers to design their IC instructions in similar EFL educational settings.

Critical thinking is an essential skill in education due to the demands of the 21st century, especially in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Nonetheless, the inclusion of critical thinking in English classroom can be quite challenging, particularly for pre-service teachers. This research deals with the integration of critical thinking into teaching modules conducted by pre-service English teachers at UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, focusing on lesson plan and instructional method. The study used a case study approach, analyzing teaching modules of twelve pre-service teachers. Bloom's taxonomy and a five-step critical thinking model were used to see the incorporation of critical thinking skills in their teaching modules. Interview was also carried out to elicit information on their way of incorporating critical thinking in their English instruction as related to the document analyzed. The results shows that the pre-service teachers exercised natural, effective thinking through well-defined objectives, questioning method, practical learning with feedback and reflection as a way to incorporate critical thinking through their teaching module. The result that they are aware of their role in supporting the students in developing their critical thinking while teaching English. The implications of the insights from the study signal considerable potential contributions for increased structured approaches to critical thinking instruction in EFL and a general commitment to reflective practice and responsive lesson design in English Language Teaching. The results have important implications for the integration of language education with critical thinking so that students become equipped with essential skills required in the 21st century.Â