EFL Lessons Research Articles

The Correlation Between Students’ Anxiety and Their Speaking Ability in EFL Classroom

The objectives of this study were to identify students' anxiety levels and to investigate the relationship between students' speaking anxiety and their speaking ability in EFL classes. This study is quantitative research in the form of correlation research. The participants were 30 eleventh-grade students at one of senior high school in Yogyakarta. The data were collected using a questionnaire and a speaking test. The questionnaire was employed to assess the student's level of anxiety, while the speaking test was utilized to gauge the extent of their speaking proficiency in the EFL lesson. In addition, the researcher employed SPSS 27 to examine the correlation between students' anxiety levels and speaking proficiency.The results of the questionnaire showed that most students have a high level of anxiety when speaking in the EFL Classroom. Some factors that cause students' anxiety when speaking English in EFL classes are lack of confidence, shyness, fear of speaking inaccurately and fear of negative evaluation. Furthermore, the result of the hypothesis test showed that the significant value is 0.025. It showed that the significance value is lower than 0.05. It can be said that Ha is accepted where there is a relationship between students' anxiety level and their speaking ability. The relationship between the two variables is a negative relationship with a Pearson Correlation coefficient value of -409. It indicated that when students have a high speaking score, their anxiety level will be low. Conversely, if students have a low speaking score, it shows that they have a high level of anxiety. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between variable x and variable y is a moderate correlation because it has a coefficient value of 0.409, which is between 0.40 - 0.59.

A Didactic Intervention On Written Discourse And Rhetorical Patterns

Reading comprehension skills in EFL is vital for university students. Particularly, being aware of the writer’s intention by means of discourse patters allows students to interact with the written text. Therefore, this research paper examines the implementation of a Discourse Analysis perspective in an Intermediate general EFL lesson aimed to enhance both critical thinking and reading skills by identifying the use of language patterns in written texts. 20 students form an Upper-Intermediate English course that studies a BA in English at a public University situated in the center of the state of Veracruz Mexico were the participants. Qualitative classroom research approach was chosen to implement a didactic intervention aimed at enhancing students communicative and reflective skills on the impact that social media has had on their lives. Results revealed that students were able to identify the meaning, and the relationship discourse markers establish between the written ideas and the meaning the writer wants to transmit. Particularly, students were able to reflect on the implications of social media use on communication, information access, marketing, and self-perception of its users. The didactic implications of the lesson focused on discourse patterns use indicate that such teaching perspective can significantly improve students’ critical thinking and communicative abilities. Therefore, it can be considered this lesson as an innovative proposal for enhancing the development of communicative skills in EFL students.

Speaking on the Way: A Simulation-Based Proposal for Primary-School EFL Learners

The main purpose of this case study was to investigate the possibilities of simulation-based learning in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Greek Primary Education by focusing on the speaking skill. Following a thorough evaluation of the speaking section of the sixth grade’s coursebook, it became evident that the simulation-based activities had shortcomings that needed improvement. An alternative proposal of a simulation-based activity with a cultural focus revealed the complications of achieving successful implementation when it comes to simulation-based experiential learning. The findings that came from the recording of a specific learner’s responses revealed that the learner took up the challenge to try a different approach to communicating in English within the context of the EFL lesson. What is more, the proposed lesson plan created implications for exploring the EFL learners’ relationship to English-speaking cultures, i.e., British culture. Limitations of the study and directions for further research were also provided.

A discourse model to analyse verbal interaction in Tunisian EFL lesson discourses

In this article, a discourse model was developed to analyse verbal interactions in 38 Tunisian EFL lessons. This model identifies four elements of exchange structure—INITIATION, RESPONSE, NEGOTIATION, and TERMINATION—and several communicative acts that differ from those proposed by Sinclair and Coulthard (1992). Data analysis underscores the prevalent patterns of verbal interaction within Tunisian EFL lessons and highlights the model's importance in understanding teachers' classroom practices. This research has pedagogical implications for EFL teachers and potential applications in teacher training programs. It offers in-service EFL teachers a descriptive tool to analyse, evaluate, and critically reflect on classroom practices.

Time Management in an EFL Lesson Room: An Analysis of Challenges faced by Senior School Teachers at Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Time Management in an EFL Lesson Room: An Analysis of Challenges faced by Senior School Teachers at Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Integrating 21st Century Skills in Curriculum and Material Development Course

The Curriculum and Material Development (CMD) course content is contextualized in accordance with technological advancements in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the community's need for educators who possess 21st-century skills. This revision involves integrating 21st-century skill values into curriculum development, syllabi, teaching materials, media, methods, and learning evaluation. Therefore, this study focuses on integrating 21st-century skills and 21st-century digital skills, including critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, and leadership, into the CMD course. This study employs the Research and Development method, which involves identifying the problem, describing existing issues, creating a design, validating the design with experts, revising the design of the English learning model, conducting trials, and making revisions. The study's outcomes include three areas of integrating 21st-century skills into the CMD course. The first area involves integrating 21st-century skills into the preliminary activity of designing lesson plans. Secondly, in the process, 21st-century skills should be integrated into the design of learning materials and tasks. Finally, after the activity, 21st-century skills should be integrated into the evaluation and reflection process. The CMD course aims to integrate 21st-century skills throughout the language curriculum. It covers Communicative Syllabus Design, Text-Based Syllabus Design, Product-Oriented Syllabus Design, Process-Oriented Syllabus Design, Content-Based Curriculum, Integrated Curriculum, EFL Curriculum, and EFL Syllabuses and Lesson Plans for Indonesian Students.

Enhancing Foreign Language Enjoyment and Well-Being Through a Mindfulness Based Intervention Program in the Efl High School Classroom - Teacher’s Insights

This paper presents findings from research that aimed to see how a mindfulness-based intervention program in an EFL high school classroom can enhance student’s foreign language enjoyment and well-being. Students from a 10th grade EFL class in a high school in Israel, participated in a mindfulness-based intervention program held during a ninety-minute EFL lesson each week over a period of thirteen weeks. The research employed qualitative methodology to collect and analyze student’s perception of their English studies, their feeling of well-being in the classroom and their foreign language enjoyment. Semi-structured interviews were used for fourteen participants in the program who were interviewed at two points in time: during the program and a week after the program had ended. Additionally, insights emerging from my teacher’s log, which documented the process of the mindfulness program at the end of each lesson are also discussed and shed light on future pedagogical implications. All of the participants interviewed reported on an increased level of enjoyment and well-being as well as perceiving an improvement in their EFL learning.

A teacher-researcher snapshot of task-based peer interactions in EFL secondary school classrooms in Germany

Abstract This article reports a small classroom-based study that has explored task-based peer interactions among grade 9 secondary school students (N = 14) of middle and low relative proficiency. Drawing primarily on audio recordings of peer interactions, oral presentations, and post-task interviews, and conducted by the teacher-researcher, it investigated how students interacted on an output task that was embedded in regular EFL lessons and designed to wrap up the unit work centered around the topic Down Under. A particular focus was on exploring to what extent and how students used the language that the task was meant to trigger, namely future tense and unit-related vocabulary. The aim was to inquire whether the task worked in the way it was designed for. The findings have shown that although students were involved with the task and with each other’s contributions, the use of the targeted structure elicited by the task remained limited. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

University EFL learners’ perceptions of communicative language teaching and learning

Abstract This paper attempts to explore Slovak EFL learners’ perceptions of the fundamental principles of communicative approach, which has been employed as the primary way of teaching foreign languages for the past five decades. Research participants were formed by 111 Slovak university EFL leaners – teacher trainees (n = 111), who were asked to demonstrate their level of agreement to the statements concerning communicative language teaching by responding to a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The calculated means indicate that overall, the research participants are in agreement with the selected principles of CLT as they agreed with 16 out of the 18 chosen statements. However, they appear to be neutral about two aspects of CLT, the use of native language at EFL lessons and discovering and investigating grammatical rules by learners themselves. Arising out of the research results, the conclusions are drawn, and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Augmenting the quality of Acehnese knowledge-based EFL material through a 4D model

Integrating local knowledge into English learning material is crucial in this globalized era as it has multiple functions, such as building students’ identity, motivating them to learn, making them attached to their culture, and preserving their local knowledge. Anchored by the curriculum theory, this study systemically developed an Acehnese Islamic cultural knowledge-based lesson material for learning English by students at senior high school and analyzed its quality based on the curriculum perspective. In doing so, this study involved EFL teachers using Tiagarajan’s 4D (Define-Design-Develop-Disseminate) model for developing the English learning material as a supplementary material for senior high schools. Local knowledge, such as Molod Nabi, Meuleumak, and Toroyong, was selected to be its content. Its quality was then assessed based on the quality criteria of a curriculum product, such as validity and practicality. The results revealed that the Acehnese local culture knowledge-based EFL lesson material for senior high schools is valid based on the teachers’ perceptions. It contains state-of-the-art knowledge and is practical for teaching English to foster the deradical characters of senior high school students. In conclusion, using the 4D model in collaboratively developing the local knowledge-based EFL English lesson material is beneficial for producing high-quality curriculum products.

Vocabulary Acquisition Through Content and Language Integrated Learning

Abstract―This study aims to attempt to the learning outcomes of the learners with a focus on Vocabulary Acquisition (VA), taught through CLIL (Content & Language Integrated Learning) as compared to the normal language teaching of EFL lessons. Linguists have introduced several methods and trends in the field of language learning. CLIL is the most recent and most effective method that has gained widespread popularity and is widely used and implemented in Europe and other parts of the world. It is a dual-focused method of language teaching, especially in foreign or second language teaching with a focus on the content or the subject. This stresses language teaching through content, the learners are taught science, geography, history, or physics with a special focus on language structures simultaneously. By using a mixed Methodology, the experimental research method of pretest and post-test was applied to get the answer to the research questions of the study. The study aims to gain the level of VA among the learners through conducting the pretest and posttest research design. The outcomes would encourage assessing the learners through CLIL to achieve greater Vocabulary Acquisition than the EFL learners.

The use of invitations to bid in classroom interaction

Abstract This study explores the interactional meaning of an invitation to bid in Korean elementary school EFL classroom interaction by adopting a conversation analytic perspective. The study argues that participants use invitations to bid to indicate that a question elicits knowledge worthy of public demonstration. The analysis of thirteen video-recorded EFL lessons revealed that teachers use invitations to bid, fulfilling instructional agenda or demands whether they are set up at the beginning of an activity or arise midway. Students similarly invite themselves to bid, showing their understanding of the meaning that the practice carries. While teachers overwhelmingly accept students’ self-invitations, they may reject them in light of the details of instructional here and now. It is argued that deciding which student population should reply is a matter of negotiation although teachers have the final say, oriented to consequences of turn allocation on the work of teaching in progress.

Tailoring EFL lessons through materials adaptation: A look into an Acehnese teacher’s experiences

This study focused on teachers’ materials adaptation as a part of teaching strategies to ensure learning success. Given that such activity is not something light to engage in and requires expertise, the researchers looked at how the process of materials adaptation was carried out. These included what was added, removed, and modified as well as the challenges confronted during the adaptation process and classroom implementation. This study sought perspective from a qualitative case study approach. Documents, classroom observations, and interview were employed to gather data from one senior high school teacher in Aceh, Indonesia. The results were analyzed based on frameworks of language teaching materials analysis, principles of teaching materials, and materials adaptation. Research findings suggested that materials adaptations mostly concentrated on adding and modifying, with less emphasis on eliminating, simplifying, and rearranging. Furthermore, the altered materials aided language learning in various ways. Nevertheless, several modifications made raised issues, such as the lack of a feeling-sharing session with the materials and an inappropriate difficulty level. Inaccessible sources of materials, fear of producing irrelevant information, time constraints, a lack of professional training and school assistance, learners’ uncooperative behavior and low competences were also identified as problems in materials adaption.

Wykorzystywanie elementów kultury własnej w nauczaniu języków obcych

The article aims to demonstrate how the method of philosophical inquiry and specifically one of its tools, namely the Question Quadrant, can be implemented in teaching English as a Foreign Language. In the first part, the importance of questions in education and the specific characteristics of philosophical questions are discussed. The next part provides practical examples of the application of the Question Quadrant to an EFL lesson. The article concludes with highlighting the benefits of the described methods and the transdisciplinarity of philosophy.

Kwadrant Pytań: Dociekania filozoficzne na lekcji języka angielskiego

The article intends to demonstrate how the method of philosophical inquiry and specifically one of its tools, namely the Question Quadrant, can be implemented in teaching English as a Foreign Language. First, the importance of questions in education and specific characteristics of philosophical questions are discussed. The next part provides the practical example of an EFL lesson with the application of the Question Quadrant. The article concludes with highlighting how philosophy can be correlated with other school subjects and its transdisciplinary role.

Using Novels in the Language Classroom

The first goal of this quantitative and qualitative study was 1) to look at students' perceptions of reading novels in EFL classes, 2) to learn what teachers think about the benefits of teaching novels in language classes, 3) to determine whether reading novels may inspire students, broaden their cultural awareness, and increase their language proficiency, and 4) to pinpoint potential difficulties that students might encounter while studying novels. The samples included 24 English professors who are currently teaching novels at chosen universities in Myanmar, together with 71 third- to fourth-year English specialized students. They were chosen using the purposive sampling technique. The data were gathered via a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with a few teachers. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation statistics were used to assess the quantitative data. The results indicated that students' opinions toward reading novels in EFL lessons were favorable. The teachers' conversation showed several difficulties and benefits of using novels. The results have instructional value for EFL instruction since they show how well-received a novel was in an EFL class, the benefits it offered, and the difficulties it presented with reading.

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Using Music on EFL Students’ Motivation, Willingness to Communicate, and Shyness

This study measured the effect of using music in the classroom on 42 Japanese EFL students’ motivation, willingness to communicate (WTC), and shyness, and attempted to examine how these three factors are related. The study also looked at ways of creating a more relaxing and enjoyable, as well as a more effective, classroom environment through the use of music in EFL lessons. For these purposes, a mixed-method research was conducted using webbased Google Forms questionnaires on the first and last days of the fall semester in 2018. Quantitative results showed significant effects on WTC and intrinsic motivation, but not on shyness. The content analysis of qualitative data also revealed that while most of the students were motivated by class activities such as pair work, presentations, and music, some students were not able to overcome their shyness. Both analyses indicate that some L2 learners, if not all, still have difficulty in overcoming the shyness that is associated with Japanese traditional culture. The findings of this study suggest that the cultural background of East Asian students needs to be carefully considered in order to further facilitate a classroom environment where Japanese and Korean students can relax and enjoy themselves.

The online learning challenges of EFL students at San Pedro University during the COVID-19 pandemic

The spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia has impacted the country's educational system. Face-to-face instruction is being replaced by full-fledged online learning from the comfort of one's own home. This study was conducted to determine the challenges of online learning for EFL students. A qualitative method was applied in this study. The data for this study was gathered through interviews and documentation. EFL students from the English education department at Universitas San Pedro in the first semester were the focus of this study. The findings of this study revealed that students faced a variety of challenges while learning online, including Internet data, Internet connection, difficulty completing assignments, intrusion, a lack of prior experience with technology, comprehension of EFL lessons, and interaction between students and lecturers. On the other hand, students have reported feelings of dissatisfaction and unhappiness as a result of their online learning. Keywords: COVID-19, EFL, online learning, students

A Review of Virtual Reality Technology in EFL Teaching

Introduction of VR technology into EFL teaching can change traditional teaching methods by increasing learners’ interaction, engagement and motivation. However, studies of VR technology in EFL teaching and learning are scarce. This paper offers a review of current studies on VR-based EFL teaching and learning, encompassing 20 studies published between 2020 to 2022. There are three ESL-related findings in this study: (1) VR is beneficial for EFL learners’ listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking, pronuntiation, vocabulary acquisition and writing. (2) Integration of VR in an EFL lesson can lower students’ foreign language anxiety in an authentically fully-immersive context and improve students’ interaction; (3)The application of VR can enhance students’ intracultural learning, facilitate learners’ creative self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. It is hoped that this review can provide insights for teachers, educators, and software develpers to consider the advantages and disadvantages of VR before it is integrated into ESL teaching in EFL classroom.

Pre-service Teachers’ Perceived Understandings and Practices of Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL Teaching

English teaching in the 21st century needs to also address learners’ successful engagement with a global milieu in intercultural settings, which remains challenging for many EFL teachers worldwide. It was evidenced by a number of studies showing that EFL teachers are not well-prepared to integrate intercultural teaching in EFL classrooms. It becomes crucial to find out the possible causes of their unpreparedness to integrate intercultural teaching in EFL lessons. This study was carried out to record Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers’ perceived understandings of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and their practice implementing the ICC elements during their teaching practicum program. It employed a survey using an electronic questionnaire consisting of 31 items. The study involved 106 participants consisting of both the alumni and the undergraduate students of ELT program from six different universities in Indonesia. The results from the questionnaire were then complemented with the results of the interview obtained from selected participants. The findings showed that the participants demonstrated excellent understanding of ICC elements; yet, they did not frequently implement ICC-related teaching activities in EFL teaching. The minimal integration of intercultural teaching was possibly due to some external factors such as restricted time, curriculum, and students’ different proficiency.