Language Classes Research Articles

‘한국 동요 새노래 지도’경험 탐색: 우즈베키스탄 예비유아교사들을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to improve students' Korean language and deliver advanced Korean music education to pre-service early childhood teachers in Uzbekistan through ‘the new-song learning activities of Korean children's songs’. 65 students in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Ferghana Korea International University in Uzbekistan were targeted. Starting in September 2023, 15 weeks of ‘the new-song-learning activities of Korean children’s songs’ classes were applied. As a result of the study, interest in the Korean language are increased, Korean was difficult for TOPIK preparation.. However, speaking Korean through song lyrics is a fun everyday English. the basic composition of music was learned through the scale of Korean Children’s songs, and an integrated approach was naturally learned through physical movement activities. It is significant in that it has prepared basic data for research on Korean language classes (bilingual classes) through Korean children's song lyrics and children's music teaching and learning methods in Uzbekistan, which is envious of advanced Korean education.

Developing oral communication skill in Bangladesh

Competency in Oral Communication has become the most spoken issue of Bangladesh in the recent years (Brunfaut, T., & Green, R., 2017). English Language is no more the communication medium for the English only; it has achieved the status of the official or the dominant language for above two billion people in more than 60 countries. In a short period of time, English received a wide geographical coverage and become one of the leading means of communication. In line with the present competitive world, Bangladesh is not an exception. In the country, English continues its domination and expansion as the highly demandable and an inevitable language. People who have a very sound communication skill in English, especially of spoken English, are in the triumphant march. However, the way of increasing this oral communicative competence for the students of Bangladesh, is indeed a very crucial and burning issue. Despite acknowledging the great importance of this language, our students have not reached to that required level. Only ‘mutual intelligibility’ or ‘mere communication through English’ cannot be considered as competency in speaking. Even the students entering the tertiary level have a very poor knowledge in English Language. This paper, therefore, goes through the present scenario of communicative skill especially speaking skill of today’s students and the existing methods of developing this oral communication skill in Bangladesh. In doing so, the researcher collected survey data from 50 students and 10 Teachers from 3 different schools of different geographical locations, data from 30 students’ and 6 teachers’ interviews. Significant innovations are also found from the practical observations of 3 English language classes of three different institutions. The paper, thus, attempts to diagnose the reasons behind the students’ incompetency, and to propose some new strategies to overcome the language barriers.

Investigating EFL English-Majored Students’ Perceptions of Interactive Teaching Methods in Language Classes

This study investigates the perceptions of EFL English-major students at Nam Can Tho University regarding interactive teaching methods. Interactive methods, which include activities such as group work, discussions, role-playing, and peer feedback, are increasingly adopted in language education to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. Grounded in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and sociocultural theory, the study explores both the benefits and challenges associated with these methods. A 20-item questionnaire, adapted from existing literature, was administered to 70 students to gather data on their experiences. The findings reveal that students recognize significant benefits of interactive methods, including increased motivation, improved language skills, and practical application of English. However, challenges such as difficulties in transitioning from traditional methods, staying focused due to distractions, managing group activities, addressing cultural influences, and ensuring equal participation were also identified. The study highlights the need for targeted support and professional development for educators, effective classroom management strategies, and culturally responsive teaching practices to enhance the effectiveness of interactive teaching methods. These insights contribute to the ongoing discourse on interactive teaching and offer practical recommendations for improving language instruction in EFL contexts.

Ethiopian EFL Students’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and the Factors Associated With It in Oral Communicative English Classes

Communication, particularly verbal communication, is central to the development of a desired competence in a second or foreign language. Approaches such as communicative language teaching (CLT) in second language acquisition emphasize practical use of the target language for effective learning/acquisition. However, despite the necessity of using a target language to learn it, it has been a common phenomenon to observe most learners exhibiting passiveness, reticence, and unwillingness to participate in oral communicative opportunities in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. This study therefore explored EFL students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in oral communicative English classes together with the factors underlying with it in the Ethiopian higher education context. To this end, primary quantitative data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 450 EFL students taking oral communicative English courses followed by qualitative data from a sample of fifteen students selected again randomly to triangulate the results from the quantitative data. The results revealed that the target students had in general a low level of WTC in oral communicative English classes, and their WTC was affected by both psychological and contextual factors such as self-confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation and classroom environments. The findings indicate that EFL students’ WTC is a crucial component to increase students’ participation in oral communicative English classes by raising their self-confidence, motivation and awareness of language learning orientations, coupled with facilitating the language learning environment. It is therefore suggested that WTC needs to be given special consideration while designing and preparing ELT materials, and during instructions as well.

A comparative study of how teachers communicate in deaf education classrooms.

This study investigates the communication practices of four teachers in 3rd to 6th grade classrooms with 9 deaf students with limited language proficiency and in stages of emergent writing development. Analyzing language modalities, utterance types, and class interactivity, we found that teachers using American sign language used student-centered approaches, generating a greater number of directives and responsive utterances. They persevered in increasing students' engagement and were successful in clarifying misunderstandings. Teachers using spoken English used teacher-centered approaches, making general comments directed at the whole class, which consequently reduced student participation and responsiveness. They also largely avoided repairing communication breakdowns with emergent writers, focusing instead on those with greater auditory and speaking abilities. These patterns reveal disparities in classroom communication that can affect student learning. Our findings highlight the need for teacher preparation programs to equip teachers with skill sets to employ accessible and effective communication during instruction, especially with deaf students who are still developing foundational language and writing skills.

The Linguistic Influence of Sanskrit on Bhadarwahi

India has a rich diversity of languages, with over 1,600 languages spoken across the nation. Sanskrit, an ancient, classical sacerdotal language of India, has a rich morphosyntactic influence on Bhadarwahi. This study aims to analyze the key linguistic similarities and differences between Bhadarwahi and Sanskrit, elaborating on vocabulary, origin, and word order while also emphasizing the potential contributions of Sanskrit to Bhadarwahi. The paper uses a comparative analysis method, and investigates word order, revealing how Bhadarwahi and Sanskrit use the same word order structures such as subject-object-verb (SOV). This study expands our understanding of linguistic diversity, as languages continually shape and are shaped by one another.

The influence of project-based learning on promoting students’ self-confidence and learning motivation in Nguyen Tat Thanh University English language classes

As Nguyen Tat Thanh University in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, has recently implemented project-based learning for non-English majors for the first time, this research desired to discover the perceptions of students on the method as well as whether project-based learning is effective to enhance students’ motivation and self-confidence. The study was conducted with the implementation of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data were collected through questionnaires with the participation of 100 non-English major freshmen at Nguyen Tat Thanh University and semi-structured interviews carried out with a total of 3 English lecturers and 15 students in the same English class. The findings showed that there was an increase in both students’ confidence and motivation level during the project-based learning class. In addition, the research indicated positive feedback and perception of the students to the experience of PBL implementation in developing their language skills and proficiency.

Using ChatGPT in planning English language classes

The digital transformation is a global trend in modernizing educational systems. Implementing digital technologies in Russian educational institutions has been legally established and has become an everyday practice for teachers and students. The transition to new forms of learning, including interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with other technological solutions, contributes to solving applied problems, such as optimizing teacher’s working time. This article explores the possibilities of using AI (in particular, ChatGPT) as a tool for English lesson planning and instructional design.The article provides an overview of the capabilities, basic principles of interaction, and prospects for using ChatGPT in the educational process. The main part of the article consists of examples of ChatGPT responses to requests from a user — an English language teacher. As a result of interaction with ChatGPT, we were able to create a lesson plan as well as exercises for the development of lexical skills, for monitoring text understanding, for developing speaking skills and listening skills. The article demonstrates that the use of ChatGPT in English language lesson planning opens new perspectives for effective individualized learning and expands the possibilities for creating attractive and relevant educational content to meet diverse needs of students.

The visual construction of the people’s country and the Chinese nation: political aesthetics in the Ethno-documentaries of New China

This paper discusses the political positioning of the people and the cultural image of the Chinese nation through the lens of the Social-historical Scientific Documentary Films of China’s ethnic minorities (hereafter referred to as “the Ethno-documentaries”) by restoring the problem to the site of the investigation of humanities and social sciences and the General Surveys on (Folk) Arts in the early years of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s. Through detailed analysis of specific Ethno-documentary films, this paper explores how the social sciences conducted its “Social and Historical Investigation of China’s Ethnic Minorities” via the medium of film to convey the advanced social concepts and ideological work of the new regime through the historical narrative of art and politics. This study highlights three key points. First, the “Chinese nation” as a modern political concept dates its origins back to the 1920s with the emergence of the “National Heritage Reorganization Movement” and the “Doubting Antiquity School.” However, it was only through the medium of the Ethno-documentaries that this concept was visually and aurally represented in films for the first time, which draws our attention to the fact that the entry point for understanding modern China lies in discerning the relationship between culture and politics. Second, when discussing the relationship between culture and politics, this study juxtaposes the Ethno-documentaries and “art for workers-peasants-soldiers,” which developed during the same period. These two forms of art focus respectively on national history and the suffering of the lower classes of society, and it is this intertextual nature of the historical narrative that jointly anchors the cultural and historical view of New China. Lastly, historical view is the core of the humanities, social sciences, and art disciplines in New China. Previous studies have mainly attributed certain phenomena to the “politicization” or “pan-politicization” of a particular historical period due to disciplinary barriers and cultural trauma and have stopped discussing such topics in depth. In contrast, the significance of the political aesthetics in the Ethno-documentaries is to have transformed classical Chinese artistic language into a modern one to represent the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. It also raises a question of re-sinicization of many modern political issues that have persisted until now: How do today’s Chinese art works vividly depict the prosperity of this country and its hardworking and courageous people?

Woda i ziemia, czyli o tekstach Tomasa Venclovy i ich roli w kształceniu literacko-kulturowym uczniów liceum

The article aims to pay attention to the functions of aquatic and earth motifs present in Tomas Venclova’s works. In light of the analysis of texts such as From Travel Diaries and Describe Vilnius and the poet’s selected poems, the author distinguishes several intertwining functions of these motifs, e.g. mood-creating, image-creating, (self-)reflective. They are subordinated to the main function diagnosed by the author – memory. The final part of the article is devoted to reflections on the use of Venclova’s texts in Polish language classes in high school as contexts, i.a., of Polish Romantic and 20th-century literature, as well as the role of selected works of the Lithuanian writer in the literary and cultural education of contemporary youth.

Kultura uczestnictwa w mediach społecznościowych (na przykładzie picturebooka „Pan Wyrazisty” Olgi Tokarczuk i Joanny Concejo). Refleksje dydaktyczne

The article is devoted to the culture of participation in social media and the issue of creating an image on the Internet, using the example of the picturebook Mr. Expressive by Olga Tokarczuk and Joanna Concejo. Due to the fact that the writer and illustrator took up topics relevant to the net generation, such as consumerism, addiction to digital media, narcissism, loneliness, lack of acceptance and understanding of different attitudes, the word-and-graphic story of contemporary culture was subjected to didactic reflection (as a proposal for reading in Polish language classes).

A self-regulation perspective on L2 grit development and its impact on language achievement

Evidence from recent studies has shown that sustained perseverance and passion for long-term goals in the domain of second language (L2) learning – a personality trait called L2 grit – is associated with various aspects of language learning, including positive psychological attributes (e.g. motivation, beliefs, and emotions), actions (e.g. learning efforts and strategy use), and achievement (e.g. course and task performance). Meanwhile, relatively little has been written about the mechanism through which such relationships emerge. Expanding upon L2 grit’s association with self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors and SRL-related psychological variables, this study explores the development of L2 grit and its role in language achievement using the SRL framework. One hundred and eight English majors in Japan responded to a questionnaire, granted permission to access their L2 class records, and completed a standardized L2 test. The main findings include: (1) the psychological attributes that facilitate SRL may play a critical role in increasing levels of L2 grit, (2) the relationship between L2 grit and achievement in language classes was mediated by behavioral self-regulation (intensified learning efforts), and (3) L2 grit may promote different types of self-regulatory behaviors depending on learners’ status (i.e. learning experience and proficiency levels) and learning situations (e.g. learning content and goals). The results provide one explanation for the superior performance of gritty learners in L2 classes observed in previous studies.

Использование цифровых технологий в практике преподавания русского языка как иностранного на подготовительном факультете в российском вузе

The article examines the specificities of teaching Russian as a foreign language to pre-graduate and pre-doctoral students in the field of nuclear physics and technologies using digital tools and methods. The work considers the benefits of teaching language for specific purposes with the application of digital tools. The research aims to determine how using digital tools can enhance the effectiveness of teaching Russian as a foreign language for specific purposes in groups of pre-graduate and pre-doctoral students. The research is novel in that it is the first one to formulate the differences between the educational process for students in graduate programs and programs for training scientific and pedagogical personnel in postgraduate studies, compared to undergraduate and specialist programs. In addition, an experiment is conducted to confirm the effectiveness of using digital tools when teaching these student cohorts. The article provides a detailed description of the system of tools used in classes at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” in groups of pre-graduate and pre-doctoral students. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that in the case of a systemic and methodologically justified use of digital tools in Russian as a foreign language classes, the effectiveness of the learning process increases, interest in learning Russian and nuclear physics is stimulated through practical assignments and research activities, and student motivation is also enhanced.

On decision problems concerning contextual insertions and deletions

The notions of stability, anti-stability, and error-correctability of a language that is modified by making contextual insertions in the words of the language were introduced in a previous paper by Bottoni et al. in 2011, where it was shown that these properties are decidable for regular languages. The authors proposed investigating the decidability of these properties for other classes of languages. Here, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for a class of languages to have decidable stable, anti-stable, and error-correctable properties, and use these conditions to exhibit general classes of languages (strictly greater than the regular languages) for which the properties are decidable, and also simple classes (the first such classes) for which the properties are undecidable. We obtain identical results for the case when contextual deletions (instead of insertions) are made in the words of the language, and also with mixes of insertions and deletions. Our constructions also demonstrate that certain general problems involving nondeterministic generalized sequential machines (GSMs) applied to languages accepted by deterministic machine models are decidable, which is surprising as the deterministic language families do not need to be closed under GSM mappings.

Transforming Cambodian Education: Full-Time Learning, Technology, and Language Integration for Public Schools

The Cambodian government has announced a significant educational reform to transition public schools to full-time learning by integrating computer and English or Chinese language classes. This initiative is designed to enhance the quality of education and better prepare students for the demands of the modern world. This paper compares these proposed changes by examining practices in five private schools already implementing full-time education and advanced technological and multilingual programs. By evaluating the academic performance, resource availability, and overall educational outcomes of these private schools, this study aims to provide actionable recommendations for successfully adopting these strategies in public schools. The research involved surveys of 565 respondents, including students, teachers, school administrators, parents, and policymakers, and in-depth interviews with 50 key stakeholders. Key findings include strong support for full-time education, higher levels of technology integration, and better multilingual education in private schools. These findings will inform policymakers, educators, and stakeholders about the potential impacts and necessary steps to ensure the successful implementation of these educational reforms in Cambodia's public school system.

Thematic control and criteria-based assessment of foreign language writing skills using artificial intelligence technologies

Importance. Currently, there is a tendency that when teaching a foreign language, teachers are increasingly resorting to the use of artificial intelligence technologies to plan training sessions, generate educational content, as well as to conduct automated testing of formed communication skills. The monitoring of academic achievements and assessment is one of the key components of the organization of the educational process. Traditional methods of control and assessment require significant time and labor-intensive costs from the teacher, while artificial intelligence technologies make it possible to simplify and automate routine tasks: check tests and written papers, analyze them and identify mistakes, provide feedback. Thanks to the integration of natural language processing (NLP) technologies into chatbots and adaptive intelligent learning systems, it becomes possible on a daily basis to check texts created by students, evaluate them from the point of view of grammatical and lexical correctness, as well as identify stylistic and factual errors in real time. The purpose of this work is to test the applicability of artificial intelligence technologies for thematic control and criteria-based assessment of educational achievements using the example of productive and reproductive writing.Research Methods. In carrying out this study, the following groups of methods were used: theoretical methods aimed at familiarizing with scientific and methodological literature on the topic of research, analysis and classification of theoretical and methodological material for conducting thematic control and criterion assessment in foreign language classes, as well as empirical methods that allowed modeling pedagogical control and assessment processes using artificial intelligence technologies, observation, analysis and description of the results obtained.Definition of Concepts. The main concepts used in the study are “control of educational results” and its variety “thematic control”, “criterion assessment”.Results and Discussion. In the course of the study, various types of monitoring educational results using artificial intelligence technologies were considered: preliminary, current, intermediate, thematic, final. The choice of thematic control is due to the opportunity to trace its applicability within the framework of a single lesson in a foreign language and identify the main difficulties in using this form of control. The following criteria for evaluating writing skills are used to evaluate learning outcomes using artificial intelligence technologies: a) the structure of the written text; b) compliance with the main topic; c) coherence; d) relevance; e) grammatical correctness; f) lexical correctness; g) ethics of writing and stylistic correctness.Conclusion. Artificial intelligence technologies at the present stage have a high degree of adaptability and include a wide range of software and hardware solutions that allow for such important pedagogical procedures as monitoring educational achievements and evaluation in accordance with user-defined evaluation criteria. The obtained results are proposed to be used in research devoted to the study of modern methods of monitoring educational achievements in the methodology of teaching foreign languages using artificial intelligence technologies.

Le Ton beau de Xuanzang: Translation as Epistemological Journey

ABSTRACTThis essay shows how one professor teaching “Introduction to Buddhism” sought to counteract his students' view that Chinese and Tibetan forms of Buddhism represented a deviation from a “pure” Indian Buddhism rather than worthwhile forms of creativity and religiosity in themselves. A simple comparative assignment that asked a group of primarily monolingual students from Minnesota to translate a 500‐year‐old French ditty into English helped illustrate the inextricability of form and content, that all translation is interpretation, that translations target specific audiences, and that religious systems that might be intuitively conceptualized as perversions of a pure original can be more charitably understood as valuable systems of thought and practice in their own right. The assignment shows that linguistic translation can be a valuable form of comparative pedagogy in the undergraduate classroom beyond language classes, especially as a proxy for simulating the challenges and possibilities of intercultural translation.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The teaching of English, historically centered on structural paradigms, faces challenges with the rise of digital technologies in social interactions. Augmented Reality (AR), by integrating virtual elements into real environments, offers transformative potential. The present work, "English in Public Schools: Augmented Reality Applications and Social Language Practices," explores the integration of AR in English language classes. Based on teacher plans in Sergipe, data from a teacher training course conducted in 2021 are analyzed through Freeman's Teacher Research (1998). Results highlight the potential of augmented reality in public English teaching, emphasizing the importance of teacher training courses in the effective implementation of educational technologies.

Subjective Well-Being of Students with Disabilities in Kazakhstan: An Exploration of Practice

This study aims to examine the factors that mediate the impact of physical disabilities on the subjective well-being of learners with disabilities in Kazakhstan. Classified as descriptive research, the study sample consists of students from four to eight Kazakh language classes in Almaty, Kazakhstan, totaling 76 male and female students. Subjective vitality is considered one of the indicators of subjective well-being. The data show that the meaningfulness of life has the strongest correlation with the Vt-d scale. The study findings also reveal that personal efforts, an active role in one's own situation, and a desire for self-development serve as the foundation for harmonious personal development and subjective well-being. An analysis of variance reveals a statistically significant effect of disability on life satisfaction; however, the vast y majority of differences appear at the trend level and/or are caused by the combined impact of gender and disability factors. The study's findings enable the development of recommendations for educational policymakers and specialists working in the disability assistance system.

Group Rapport Building in an Institutionaized Face-To-Face Interaction: a Case Study

When people are engaged in any interaction, they are likely to respond to each other's verbal and nonverbal cues. This responsiveness is a critical factor in the notion of rapport. In this paper, the author argues that the same human dynamics that govern everyday conversations are at play between participants in institutionalized conversations such as classroom discourse. The purpose of this study is to develop critical aspects of "conversational involvement" (Duranti, 1986; Goodwin, 1986; Gumperz, 1982; Tannen, 1985) as rapport-building devices and to provide observable phenomena that characterize rapport with participants' verbal and nonverbal cues in informal and formal conversation. In this study, nine people participated: a Korean professor of an elementary Korean language class at a major US university and eight undergraduate students whose first language is English. Three fifty-minute classroom sessions were videotaped, and segments that illustrated the teacher's and students' behaviors that facilitated rapport were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed. The author recorded the frequency of the teacher's verbal and nonverbal cues that appeared to foster rapport. This study found that the teacher shared small talk in informal before-class conversations by bringing up insignificant details about daily life. The teacher played the role of teacher during class by directing a lesson. However, she continued to utilize various rapport-building devices through selected verbal and nonverbal cues to engage her students in the conversation. In this classroom, as in everyday conversation, the participants demonstrated their desire to listen to, be responsive to, and be influenced by individuals in a certain way. The participants were part and parcel of achieving their goals in the classroom. The participants created a certain alignment to achieve their goals and signal that they were involved in the interaction. Then, the students would be able to learn the target language more through the involvement of the classroom activity, which is one of the outcomes of good rapport.