EFL Lessons Research Articles

A Rasch-Based Validation of ELT Certificate-LORT

The present study was executed with the purpose of validating ELT Certificate Lesson Observation and Report Task (ELTC-LORT), which was developed by China Language Assessment to certify China’s EFL teachers by performance-based testing. The ELT Certificate has high-stakes considering its impacts on candidates’ recruitment, ELT in China and quality of education, so it is crucially important for its validation so as to guarantee fairness and justice. The validity of task construct and rating rubric went through a process suited for many-facet Rasch measurement supplemented with qualitative interviews. Participants (N = 40) were provided with a video excerpt from a real EFL lesson, and required to deliver a report on the teacher’s performance. Two raters graded the records of the candidates’ reports using rating scales developed to measure EFL teacher candidates’ oral English proficiency and ability to analyze and evaluate teaching. Many-facet Rasch analysis demonstrated a successful estimation, with a noticeable spread among the participants and their traits, proving the task functioned well in measuring candidates’ performance and reflecting the difference of their ability. The raters were found to have good internal self-consistency, but not the same leniency. The rating scales worked well, with the average measures advancing largely in line with Rasch expectations. Semi-structured interviews as well as focus group interviews were executed to provide knowledge regarding the raters’ performance levels and the functionalities of the rating scale items. The findings provide implications for further research and practice of the Certificate.

Multilingual-sensitive professional action competence and pre-service teachers’ beliefs – a happy marriage?

The present study addresses a major concern in current German pre-service EFL teacher education: The development of prospective teachers’ multilingual-sensitive professional action competence that is their ability to make use of their future pupils’ multilingual resources to enhance EFL teaching and learning processes with a lexical focus. To this end, two identical teacher training classes held at Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Germany are presented, the primary aims of which were to raise students’ awareness of multilingual-sensitive teaching approaches on the one, and to enable them to design multilingual-sensitive EFL lessons with a lexical focus on the other hand. Given insights from earlier research, namely that teachers’ beliefs and (prior) experiences “interact differently with the theoretical knowledge they gain in lectures” (Ellis 2006: 7), and to gain holistic insights into the development of participants’ competence, their beliefs about quality criteria of EFL teaching and learning processes with a lexical focus as well as the sources of these beliefs were addressed in classes. Not surprisingly, results show that students’ beliefs at the onset of classes were firmly rooted in their personal Language Learning Biographies and heavily shaped by mono-, rather than multilingual teaching and learning approaches. However, it could also be shown that students’ beliefs changed throughout the training, a finding which bears important implications for future teacher training classes. /Keywords: multilingualism, teacher beliefs, Language Learning Biography

Awareness of Critical Thinking Attitudes and English Language Skills: The Effects of Questions Involving Higher-order Thinking

This study examines Japanese students’ awareness regarding critical thinking (CT) attitudes and their attention to building their speaking skills in an EFL context to determine effective CT approaches. The study began with a literature review of CiNii articles and studies from the Web of Science database regarding CT theories and educational approaches. It examined critical thinking approaches in EFL contexts as well as foreign-language approaches of International Baccalaureate® (IB) programmes. The review indicated that critical thinking can be fostered when students are asked questions that require higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in EFL courses. Then, EFL lessons were organised based on the theories and approaches examined in the review. Participants included 22 Japanese senior high school students. Various higher cognitive level questions were posed to the participants. Additionally, students were required to prepare and present academic presentations and answer discussion questions after the presentation. To ascertain students’ awareness of attitudes toward CT, the Critical Thinking Attitudes Scale was used, and students’ reflective essays were analysed using the co-occurrence network of words in the KH Coder. To measure students’ speaking skills, their performance on speaking tasks was analysed by two International Baccalaureate’s examiners. The results indicate that the improvement of CT attitudes and speaking skills is significant regardless of English proficiency level. These findings suggest that if EFL teachers ask HOTS questions, students would become aware of critical thinking attitudes and acquire English speaking skills by answering the questions in a Japanese EFL context.

Teachers’ regard for adolescent perspectives in feedback dialogues with students in lower-secondary schools

The teacher is a key agent in facilitating for adolescent perspectives during lessons. Feedback dialogues have an inherent capacity to capitalise on or undervalue adolescent perspectives in instruction and learning. The present study focused on lower-secondary school teachers’ regard for adolescent perspectives in feedback dialogues with students in lessons on English as a foreign language (EFL, n = 65) and mathematics (n = 113). The data material consisted of video recordings coded with the regard for adolescent perspectives dimension in the Classroom Assessment Scoring System–Secondary Manual. Teacher–student interactions in both EFL and mathematics lessons generally showed scores in the low range for regard for adolescent perspectives. The mathematics lessons had consistently lower scores for quality. Four cases represented the maximum and minimum mean scores for the dimension, regard for adolescent perspectives, in the observed lessons. These cases provided examples of episodes when teachers either succeeded or failed to make room for adolescent perspectives in teacher–student interactions. The results indicate that attention to adolescent perspectives seems to be a neglected aspect of feedback dialogues in lower-secondary school.
 Norsk sammendrag
 Norsk tittel: Læreres hensyn til ungdomsperspektiver i tilbakemeldingsdialoger med elever i ungdomsskolen
 Læreren er en nøkkelperson i å legge til rette for ungdomsperspektiver i undervisningen. Tilbakemeldingsdialoger har en iboende kapasitet til å styrke eller undervurdere ungdomsperspektiver i undervisning og læring. Denne studien fokuserte på ungdomsskolelæreres hensyn til ungdomsperspektiver i tilbakemeldingsdialoger med elever i engelsk- (n = 65) og matematikkundervisning (n = 113). Datamaterialet bestod av videoopptak kodet med «hensyn til ungdomsperspektiver»-dimensjonen i Classroom Assessment Scoring System– Secondary Manual. Lærer–elev interaksjoner i både engelsk og matematikk viste generelt skårer i det lavere området for hensyn til ungdomsperspektiver. Matematikktimene hadde konsekvent lavere kvalitetsskårer. Fire caser representerte maksimum- og minimumsgjennomsnittskårer for dimensjonen, hensyn til ungdomsperspektiver, i de observerte timene. Disse casene viste eksempler på episoder der lærere enten lyktes eller feilet med å gi rom til ungdomsperspektiver i lærer–elev interaksjoner. Resultatene indikerer at oppmerksomhet rundt ungdomsperspektiver ser ut til å være et forsømt aspekt av tilbakemeldingsdialoger i ungdomsskolen.

The Teacher’s Role in Telecollaborative Language Learning: The Case of Institutional Integrated Teletandem

ABSTRACT Teletandeem is a model of telecollaboration in which pairs of speakers of different languages meet virtually and regularly in order to learn each other’s language. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pedagogical implications of integrating teletandem into the foreign language syllabus, focusing on the professor’s dual role: teaching English in regular face-to-face lessons and mediating virtual autonomous and collaborative learning in teletandem. Learning diaries, produced by EFL students from a Language Teacher Education course, were collected during eight weeks of an institutional integrated teletandem project between a Brazilian and a British university. Our analysis focused on the teacher’s role in mediating foreign language learning both in the classroom and through the learning diaries. We present evidence on what the professor does so that teletandem practice can contribute to language learning in the classroom and, by the same token, how EFL lessons can aid in autonomous telecollaborative learning.

EFL collaborative writing: text production and online resources

This paper discusses the use of digital online resources as a means to foster collaborative writing in EFL lessons. Two main online free platforms are suggested and briefly analyzed: Powtoon and Google Docs. The discussion finds theoretic support in the new literacies approach in the studies of the New London Group, Gee and Hayes (2012) and adopts a Bakhtinian orientation to language as social practice. The ideas presented are meant to be explored in EFL lessons in a variety of different learning levels and teaching contexts, ranging from basic to higher formal education as well as language schools. It is both a proposal and an exploratory study which aims at expanding the discussion concerning the processes of teaching and learning how to write in English in Brazilian formal educational contexts.

INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO EFL TEACHING BEHIND CLASSROOM DOORS: A CASE STUDY OF UPPER SECONDARY TEACHERS IN VIETNAM

In the context of globalization, intercultural integration has gained a better position in teaching and learning English in Vietnam, even in general education. In fact, intercultural objectives and intercultural content have been added to the expected curriculum and pilot coursebooks for teaching English in upper secondary education. Prior to the implementation of the new curriculum, it is essential to explore how teachers deal with intercultural content provided in the coursebooks. From the view of intercultural teaching, this study focuses on the positionality of intercultural objectives and intercultural teaching strategies in teachers’ practice. Data collected from 101 teachers through questionnaire and six class observations illustrate that (1) teachers did not include intercultural objectives in EFL lessons and (2) they rarely conducted intercultural language activities in their teaching practice. It is recommended that intercultural education needs more attention from educational managers to support the EFL teachers in upper secondary schools to incorporate culture into their teaching more effectively, which contributes to the accomplishment of a reformed English curriculum objective – building comprehensive intercultural competence for the students.

The Assessment of a “Crossover” Translation Technique for Innovative Development of Central Asia Mining Regions

Innovative development of mining regions is undoubtedly determined by efficient specialists in mining engineering, ecology and natural resources management. Due to close integration and economic relations of Kemerovo Region, a leading mining region in Russia, with the adjacent states of Central Asia many young people from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have chosen Kemerovo Region universities to get higher education necessary to develop mining industry in their native countries. Taking higher education courses there they are to study English via Russian as an intermediate language, both languages being foreign to them. To assist themselves in studying the subject, international students from Central Asia use a “crossover” translation technique by means of machine translation at EFL lessons. The assessment of the technique has been carried out and some advice is given to both international students from Central Asia and teachers of EFL. Practical value of the “crossover” translation technique promotes training efficient specialists for mining industry capable to learn and apply advanced technologies for innovative development of Central Asia mining regions.

Making intercultural learning in EFL lessons interesting – The role of teaching processes and individual learning prerequisites and their interactions

With a sample of 2047 German students in 93 classes we investigated whether students' perception of the interestingness of an EFL lesson with intercultural focus was explained by teaching processes, students' learning prerequisites, and their interactions. Our findings indicate that lessons during which teachers supported students' self-determination were perceived as more interesting by the students than other lessons. However, even these lessons were not perceived as interesting by all students. Within-class variation was partly explained by students’ personal interest in EFL and intercultural sensitivity. Besides, differential effects of teaching processes were observed depending on these learning prerequisites.

Technology as an Educational Equalizer for EFL Learning in Rural China? Evidence from the Impact of Technology-Assisted Practices on Teacher-Student Interaction in Primary Classrooms

Based on a conversational analysis (CA) of eight videoed EFL lessons from technology-enhanced primary classrooms in a rural suburb of a major city in China, this study examines the nature of technology-assisted practices and their influence on teacher-student interaction in the target language. The analysis revealed that the technology-assisted practices mainly served as an alternative presentation tool to meet a range of traditional pedagogical goals and facilitated minimal spontaneous language use among the students. The findings call for research to explore better pedagogical use of technology to promote students’ active language production to truly achieve educational equalization for rural students.

Exploring a curriculum app and a social communication app for EFL learning

ABSTRACTMobile apps are broadly used by students in and after class to improve their language skills. This study aimed to investigate how a curriculum app and a social communication app can be integrated into English language teaching and learning and what sorts of tasks can be employed to enhance learners’ EFL learning. A curriculum app was created by the researchers and integrated into English teaching and learning in and out of class. Meanwhile, a social communication app used on mobile phones was also established for communication between students and the teacher. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted so as to explore students’ perceptions of these apps. The findings indicated that mobile learning can be adapted in EFL lessons and learners’ self-study. The apps providing sources connected to lessons and opportunities for communication offered additional support to students to practice English in and after class. Participants provided positive comments on the two apps for mobile learning.

Triggers and constraints of lower secondary students’ willingness to communicate orally in English in a CLIL setting in the Norwegian context

AbstractThis article reports on findings from a small-scale qualitative study performed in a CLIL setting in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The study explored the effect of a six-week CLIL intervention project combining history and English on 27 Norwegian ninth graders’ motivation to engage in classroom oral activities and, consequently, their willingness to communicate (WTC) orally, as well as factors triggering and constraining the students’ WTC in the CLIL lessons. Data were collected through classroom observations, teacher pre- and post-interviews, and student pre- and post-questionnaires. The findings revealed that the CLIL intervention had reinforced most students’ motivation and WTC orally compared to their regular EFL lessons. The study adds to the sparse CLIL research in Norway.

Cognitive discourse functions in Austrian CLIL lessons: towards an empirical validation of the CDF Construct

AbstractIt is now widely recognized among educators that explicit attention to language is necessary in order to optimize both language and content learning in situations, such as CLIL, where learners, teachers or both operate in a second language. However, the requirement of attention to language sits uneasily with the fact that content-subject specialist teachers frequently feel unprepared to think and operate in linguistic dimensions. In an attempt to create a conceptualisation that would speak to subject teachers in terms that are meaningful to them from within their own subjects, a Construct of Cognitive Discourse Functions (henceforth CDFs) has been proposed. This construct is theoretically founded in both educational curriculum theory and linguistic pragmatics and consists of a seven-fold categorization of verbalizations which express acts of thinking about subject matter in the classroom (CLASSIFY, DEFINE, DESCRIBE, EVALUATE, EXPLAIN, EXPLORE, REPORT). As the theoretical background of the CDF Construct has been discussed at length elsewhere (Dalton-Puffer 2013, 2016), it will be presented only briefly at the outset of this article. The main purpose of this contribution is to report on steps taken towards an empirical validation of the CDF Construct. A total of four smaller-scale studies each focusing on the classroom discourse in one subject (biology, physics, economics, history) will be surveyed in order to find answers to the questions of whether CDFs actually occur in classroom interaction and if they do, which and to what extent. Comparisons to a small complementary study on a set of EFL lessons will be made where appropriate. Results show that CDFs are indeed a staple of teaching and learning in classroom-based education but are in no way equally distributed. Also, they are almost never the object of conscious attention. As a number of further questions remain yet to be answered on the way towards empirical validation of a fully articulated CDF Construct, these will be discussed in the conclusion of the article.

Chilean young learners’ perspectives on their EFL lesson in primary schools

Latest research in the field of applied linguists suggests that giving children a participatory and active role in the development of their foreign language skills could help teachers reveal overlooked aspects of language learning. Furthermore, challenging the role given to children in language learning research could provide useful insights about the learning processes. In this regard, little is known in the field of primary English language teaching in Latin America. In the case of Chile, the Curriculum Framework for primary English language teaching considers the relevance of children’s experiences as part of their learning process; however, reference to their active involvement in this process is still scarce. This article aims at identifying the perspectives about the English lesson of a group of fourth graders from state-funded schools in Chile. Through an exploratory study of qualitative nature, the viewpoints of 16 children are collected through semi-structured group interviews. The data from the four group interviews are interpreted by content analysis resulting into two categories, and five subcategories related to likes, dislikes, perceived value of learning English, hands-on activities and feedback. The findings suggest that given the chance, children are able to consistently reflect on their learning process and experiences. These learners pointed out preferences for hands-on activities and the relevance of opportunities for obtaining feedback as contributing experiences for successful language learning. Similarly, these results illustrate that, by considering perspectives from outside applied linguistics, researchers could uncover factors present in the language learning process.

Using more native-like language acquisition processes in the foreign language classroom

This work presents the case for using native-like language and learning networks in the classroom-based teaching of foreign languages and suggests how this might be done for EFL lessons. Networks i...

Elements of Cooperative Learning during EFL Lessons for Technical College Students

Elements of Cooperative Learning during EFL Lessons for Technical College Students

The Nature of Peer Interaction: Role Relationships Formed in Pair Interaction

This study examines the nature of peer interaction, in particular pair interaction, of adult learners engaged in a range of activities in naturalistic EFL lessons. Six pairs engaged in seven different activities followed by a stimulated recall interview. Data from the transcripts of the audio-recorded pair talk and interviews were analysed to describe different types of pair interaction according to mutuality and equality. Five different types of pair interaction were observed during pair work: collaborative, cooperative, dominant/passive, expert/passive and expert/novice. Only one pair displayed a single type of pair interaction while the others showed more than two types of pair interaction. However, on the last activity, all six pairs showed collaborative interaction. These findings suggest that pair interaction can be collaboratively enhanced in a socially developed relationship between learners over time.

Transformation of traditional EFL instruction into Web 2.0: Azerbaijani Undergraduate Students’ Readiness to Use Online Technologies in EFL Lessons

The present study meant to shed light on Azerbaijani undergraduate students’ readiness to use contemporary electronic devices in EFL classes. To get the required data, the researcher applied to the questionnaire. The survey took place at Qafqaz University (Current Baku Engineering University). By and large, 442 learners participated in this questionnaire with different English levels and class profile. The result of this investigation has revealed that modern technologies have become an integral part of the overwhelming majority of Azerbaijani undergraduate students. The findings also indicate that undergraduate students in Azerbaijan have a high potential to learn English through Web 2.0 technologies.

The importance of being critical – Polish EFL teachers' beliefs and practices

Sooner or later, countries like Poland will have to welcome immigrants from the Middle East and successfully communicate with the immigrants from different cultural backgrounds. I would like to argue that critical cultural awareness proves to be a cornerstone of the model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (Byram, 1997) and should be considered a prerequisite for developing the rest of the components comprising the model. The main aim of the present research paper is to investigate, analyse and discuss Polish EFL teachers' beliefs on the idea of including critical cultural awareness, a crucial component of intercultural competence, in the EFL lessons, teachers' teaching practices with reference to developing particular elements of intercultural competence in the EFL lessons and the possible discrepancies between their beliefs and practices. A questionnaire administered to 125 Polish EFL teachers and a case study of three practitioners, who were observed, interviewed and confronted in a focus-group discussion, were used to collect the relevant data. The results of my research study suggest that a lot of Polish EFL teachers declare that they consider Byram's intercultural communicative competence model (Byram 1997) relevant to foreign language teaching and learning in the present-day and seem to be willing to implement it in their lessons, yet many of those teachers appear not to prioritize intercultural competence in their teaching practice. This apparent discrepancy between language teachers' beliefs and their practices may stem from teachers' lack of sufficient intercultural training during their professional education. A need for implementing critical cultural awareness into the pre-service teacher trainings was identified. Keywords: intercultural competence, critical cultural awareness, EFL teaching and learning

Spanish Secondary School Students’ Oral Competence in EFL: Self-assessment, Teacher assessment and Assessment Tasks

Although Spanish students start EFL lessons at a very early age, several studies at a national and European level highlight the low competence of Spanish speakers in general and of Spanish students in particular in spoken English. In this context, we set to design a comprehensive questionnaire on the process of teaching and learning oral skills in Secondary Education, which was administered to both teachers and students of English in a representative sample of Secondary Schools in the region of Aragón (Spain), the total number of answers being 2,073 (2,010 from students and 63 from teachers). Our aim was to ascertain whether students perceive themselves as progressively more skilled in speaking and interacting as they advance through the 6-year Secondary Education period. We considered possible differences depending on the type of school students attend: rural or urban, private, state-run or state-subsidised, and non-bilingual or bilingual. In addition, we explored the possible effect of the teachers’ reported methods of assessment of oral skills on the students’ perceived and achieved competence. The results derived from this survey can provide a good diagnosis of the current situation of the teaching and learning of oral skills in Spanish EFL Secondary School classrooms.