ELT Classroom Research Articles

The Use of Bahasa Indonesia in the ELT Classroom

This paper presents a survey of to use of Bahasa Indonesia in ELT classroom. The respondents of this survey were 265 students from various private universities in Bogor. It was assumed that all respondents who answered the questionnaires understood the aims of the survey. The results show, among others, that many of the students stated that Bahasa Indonesia should be used in ELT classroom and almost half the number of the students liked their teacher's use of Bahasa Indonesia. Some required conditions to use Bahasa Indonesia include the difficulty of the concepts to be explained, the degree of comprehension of the students, and class administration.

Critico-creative Thinking Pedagogy in ELT

Teaching and learning English is an energizing, purposeful, and vital experience for developing learners’ competence, confidence, and creativity. It is only possible when we let our learners think critically and creatively in our ELT classroom. This article deals with the theoretical concept of critico-creative thinking as a pedagogy reflecting the practical experiences in general and in ELT in particular. It aims to suggest both teachers and learners to adopt the critico-creative pedagogical strategies while teaching and learning English. Journal of NELTA Surkhet Vol.4 2014: 70-75

Overcoming Fundamental Challenges in ELT Classroom

As English language teachers, we face many challenges in our classroom particularly dealing with mixed ability students, managing classroom discipline, motivating learners, presenting new topics, improving learners’ pronunciation, using appropriate classroom language, encouraging less motivated learners, and dealing with homework. In this light, present article attempts to deal with some of these topics in brief and provides some useful tips to overcome such challenges in the form of reflection of a practicing teacher/ teacher trainer after the references mentioned at the end of this article. Journal of NELTA Surkhet Vol.4 2014: 105-108

Large Under-Resourced ELT Classes: What do the Learners Expect?

This research explores the learners’ expectations in a large under-resourced ELT classes in Nepalese context. The researcher used a set of questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The data were collected from a total of one hundred secondary level students at different government- aided schools in Kathmandu valley. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The overall findings of the survey revealed that the learners expect a wide variety of activities to be used in a large ELT classroom. Similarly, they highly emphasize the rapport with the teacher, and expect normal speed of speech from the teacher while teaching. The implication of these and many other findings is that large and under-resourced ELT classes in Nepalese context need special attention on the part of the teacher. As far as possible collaborative activities like group and pair works should be encouraged and the teacher must be active and dynamic in the classroom paying attention to all kinds of learners. Journal of NELTA Surkhet Vol.4 2014: 64-69

When Students Say Far Too Much: Examining Gushing in the ELT Classroom

<p>English foreign-language users often overuse words when faced with difficult situations. Called <em>gushing</em>, such excessive use of words is often legitimately employed by native speakers to express, for instance, gratitude and apologies when a simple <em>thank you</em> or <em>sorry</em> does not sufficiently convey an interlocutor’s feelings. This paper examines the appropriateness and effectiveness of gushing when employed by advanced students facing difficult situations. Answering discourse completion tasks, students from a private university in Guadalajara, Mexico were asked to employ acquiescing, persisting, and aggressing strategies to resolve two particular situations. The results indicate that gushing was widely used, but in communicatively ineffective ways, reflecting an area where teachers can help develop students’ communicative competencies.</p><p>Los hablantes del inglés como lengua extranjera frecuentemente usan palabras en exceso cuando enfrentan situaciones difíciles. Hablantes nativos utilizan un excesivo número de palabras para expresar, por ejemplo, gratitud y disculpas cuando un simple gracias o lo siento no transmite completamente los sentimientos del interlocutor. Este artículo examina el uso excesivo de palabras por alumnos con un nivel avanzado de inglés al enfrentarse a situaciones difíciles. Al responder un cuestionario de completación, alumnos universitarios en Guadalajara, México, usaron estrategias conciliadoras, interrogatorias y argumentativas para resolver dos situaciones específicas. Los resultados indican que un uso excesivo de palabras fue utilizado pero en formas comunicativamente ineficaces y reflejan un área donde los profesores pueden ayudar a los alumnos a desarrollar competencias comunicativas.</p>

Paradigm Shift: A Critical Appraisal of Traditional and Innovative Roles of an English Teacher in Saudi ELT Classrooms

The existing teaching practices in Saudi ELT classrooms, largely reflect the implications of traditional teacher-centred classrooms. In this vein, the study discusses diverse manifestations of the most influential scholars on the stereotypical traditional role of the teacher and also highlights pressing need for redefining the roles of a teacher in new perspectives. The teacher in a traditional teacher-centred classroom assumes the role of an absolute authoritative figure, who serves as the source of knowledge while learners serve as passive recipients. It is well accepted that this sort of unilateral pedagogy fails to build creativity as well as communicative ability of the learners and thus hinders their language learning process. Hence, the main focus of the study is on how innovative role of the teacher significantly altered the role of the learners and in the thick of all classroom activities they get practical experience of using the language for communicative purposes. The phenomenon of teacher’s traditional and innovative role was interrogated and explored using the qualitative research tools, I.e. opinionnaire and classroom observation. The specific population included two hundred male and female EFL teachers from Jazan University to obtain representative sample for the study.

A Case Study of Chinese College Students’ Attitudes Toward Only English-Medium Teaching in EFL Classrooms

Facing the current situation that Chinese students are poor in English productive ability, the mode of only English-medium teaching is put forward to completely improve students’ English abilities and comprehensive competence by creating second language acquisition atmosphere. Since few studies have been conducted on students’ attitudes toward only English-medium teaching in ELT classrooms especially from the perspective of students themselves, this paper, through questionnaires and interviews, focuses on students’ attitudes to figure out their preferences, evaluations and suggestions of teaching modes, and further discusses the practical application of only English-medium teaching in EFL classrooms from five respects: teaching purpose, course design, teacher’ qualification, students’ language level and teaching effect. It is concluded that only English-medium teaching is not of popularity among students giving their own English levels and the advancement of only English-medium teaching quality depends on the qualified teachers and suitable courses. Keywords: English teaching, Teaching effect, Teacher qualification, Students’ language level, Course design

Expectation of Tertiary Students of Bangladesh from ELT Classrooms

Expectation influences motivation and performance in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Students’ expectation also plays a significant role in curriculum development. This paper focuses on the expectations of the students in an English language classroom and how they want to be taught. From a study on 45 students of Stamford University Bangladesh, the researcher tried to find students’ expectations about content, factors behind the expectations and effects of expectations in a language classroom using semi-structured interviews. It was found that students have expectations regarding their course content, teaching-learning style and education management. Several factors such as professional need, education background, social beliefs, personal goals and personality of the students worked behind their expectations and their expectations played a significant role in their classroom behavior and performance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12080 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 56-64

Using Non-native English Films to Promote Multiculturalism in ELT Classroom

This paper aims to present how the incorporation of non-native English films can enhance the multicultural awareness among the English language learners. As the non-native English films expose the students to linguistic and cultural diversity, they can be used as effective tools in designing materials for ELT classroom. To demonstrate how teachers can incorporate these films in their classroom, the paper discusses various approaches to design materials for language classroom, and contains three sample lesson plans for intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced level students. The lesson plans exploit a number of non-native English films to generate a discussion of different cultures along with teaching English language. Finally, the paper ends with some suggestions for the teachers. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12081 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 65-76

Teachers’ Attitudes towards Critical Pedagogy and its Practice in ELT Classrooms

Critical Pedagogy (CP), a mode of pedagogy, aims to empower learners and provide justice by offering preferential options and deconstructing authoritative and logo centric tendency in education. The current study, by using a mixed methodological design (qualitative and quantitative), illustrates a group of Nepali English language teachers’ attitudes regarding CP in ELT, focusing on how they employ CP in their classrooms. For this research, a sample of 10 teachers was purposively selected from Baitadi and Dadeldhura districts. Five teachers’ classes were observed. Analyzing the data collected through a survey questionnaire, it was found that all the teachers are in favour of CP in most cases in ELT. Even if all the teachers were notionally appeared in favor of practicing CP in most of the aspects that were asked to them, quite contrary to it, observation results of the teachers’ classes revealed that they did not, in any real sense, embrace CP in their teaching practice. Hence, this study invoked the ELT teachers to embrace CP practically in the classrooms. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12086 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 132-146

Code Switching as a Robust Catalyst; a Useful Way to Become a More Strategic Language User

Code switching, or as sometimes is spelled code-mixing (Muysken, 2000), is a widely observed phenomenon especially seen in multilingual and multicultural communities. In ELT classrooms, code switching comes into use either in the teachers’ or the students’ discourse. Although it is not favored by many educators, one should have at least an understanding of the functions of switching between the native language and the foreign language and its underlying reasons. In this paper, it will be tried to clearly provide some basic definitions, elements, functions and classifications of code switching in different fields and disciplines and finally to come up with a general understanding as well as practical applications and uses of this pragmatic tool. This understanding will provide language teachers with a heightened awareness of its use in classroom discourse and will obviously lead to better of instruction by either eliminating it or dominating its use during the foreign language instruction.

Task-Based Learning Approach: From Theory to Practice

The field of teaching has witnessed the elaboration of bounteous approaches and methods, eached influenced by a learnig theory and a teaching theory. The task-based approach is an example of these innovations in teaching in general and English language teaching in particular. With its three-phase procedure, pre-task, task and post-task phases, the task-based approach fits project- based learning and is consistent with the competency-based approach. This paper aims to popularise the use of the task-based learning as an approach in ELT classrooms. The focus will be also on the way teachers switch from theory to practice keeping the same pedagogical objectives. The paper sheds light on the main phases of the task-based learning approach, its advantages if used with students having different abilities and how to evaluate their tasks.

Transition to an Innovative ELT Classroom

Technology has intervened in every discipline of Education. It has supremely modernized learning and teaching atmosphere. Therefore, English Language Teaching is not an exceptional. ELT has been transformed greatly because of influx of technology. ELT which has a very short history of 300 years has been evolved to a great extent due to digitalization. A range of different methods, techniques and approaches were adopted through the years to meet with the needs of learners. ELT started its journey with Classical Method and now has entered the most dynamic phase of its evolution where ICT is dominating in learning and teaching. Due to the excessive use of ICT in ELT, now this field of study offers several innovative techniques and tools to the learners and teachers of English. In this study digital innovations in ELT are discussed .These innovative tools have entirely reshaped ELT.

Religion in the ELT classroom: Teachers’ perspectives

The appropriateness of certain discussion topics in language learning settings is an important consideration for teachers, and one of these topics is religion. This paper reports on a survey of nearly 300 ELT professionals to ascertain their views on the discussion or mentioning of religion in the language classroom. Respondents were questioned on their feelings regarding the discussion or mentioning of religion in class; this datum was cross-analyzed with the respondents’ indicated religious beliefs and countries/regions where they teach. In addition to gathering quantitative data in the form of multiple-choice opinion questions, the survey asked respondents to expand on their answers by providing written commentary which was examined for emerging themes and patterns of thought. 言語習得の場で提起される話題に妥当性があるかどうかは、教師にとって重要な問題である。その1つとして挙げられるのが「宗教」である。本論は約300名のEFL及びESL教師を対象とした調査報告で、語学の授業内で宗教について言及または議論することに関し、教師がいかなる認識を持つかを確認する目的で行われた。まず、調査対象者が現在教育している国や地域についてデータを収集した。次に、授業中に宗教に関する話題が出る頻度について、回答を求めた。最後に、授業中に宗教に関する話題が出ることに関し、どのように感じるかを質問した。このデータは、調査対象者の回答した宗教的信念に基づきクロス分析されている。多項選択式の質問により意見を選択する量的データの収集に加え、与えられた回答にとらわれない新たなテーマや思考パターンを検討するために、記述式の回答により回答の幅を広げることも試みた。

Using Comparative Literature in the ELT Classroom: Underlining the Post-modern Sister Carrie in Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

Using comparative literature in the ELT classroom is a powerful tool to teach both the history of different cultures and to foster creative abilities. An example of such a comparative analysis is Theodore Dreiser's masterpiece Sister Carrie(1900) and Jillian Lauren's novel Some Girls: My Life in a Harem(2010). Through a comparative analysis, it can be ascertained that Dreiser's protagonist Caroline Meeber, Sister Carrie, symbolically intersects with Lauren's narrator. Like a post-modern Sister Carrie, Lauren's narrator underlines the historical, social, cultural and psychological forces behind becoming a woman through focusing on the binary opposition between ‘the real and the unreal.

Ways to Cope with Teacher Burnout Factors in ELT Classrooms

Abstract As a result of working in a stressful working environment, people commonly face “burnout”. Burnout refers to negative consequences associated with chronic job stress and it likely occurs in anyone who works with people in some capacity. Hence, it would be fair to say that burnout is not a phenomenon associated exclusively with any particular human service population (Buck: 2006). As they deal with teaching to students and organizing a relationship with the administration and many other issues all of which are related to human service and relation, teachers present one of the top 5 most stressful careers in the world (Coombe: 2008). As a result of the stressful work they do, teachers commonly face “burnout”. Teacher burnout is an issue to be taken into consideration as it affects learners as well as teachers. In order to obtain a more stress free environment and save both the learners and the teachers from psychological and physical effects of burnout, the issue of burnout is going to be studied in this paper. This study aims to give the definition, historical background and the sources of burnout as well as the harms of burnout period on ELT teachers and ways to avoid from teacher burnout.

Aspects of English Language Teaching

The main focus of the paper is on the individual skills of the language use. It also deals with definitions of these skills, the sub skills or components of each skill, and ways pertaining to the learning and teaching of the skills. One of the key principles of communicative pedagogy is to teach skills in an integrated manner. Assumptions of teaching and learning inherent in ELT class room are introduced so that a mind set or focus, necessary for the study of the principles of methodology is encouraged. It makes us know about basic issues in the field of English language teaching to improve teaching practices, rather than an orientation to the discussion of academic issues for the academic purposes. The paper introduces us to the activity of theorizing about the classroom. This means the principles of language teaching are arrived through analysis will be made by the learner through his own teaching practice but much of the analysis will be made on the basis of conclusions arrived by the theorists in the field. This is nothing but involving the behaviors of the participants of the teaching-learning process in the curriculum.

Differences between Language and Linguistic in the ELT Classroom

This paper attempts to present differences between language and linguistic. Language and linguistic are two different words but there is relationship between them. ‘Language’ is a sign system of humankind in order to communicate one’s thoughts, Feelings, and opinions to someone else but linguistic is scientific study of language. In fact the goal of linguistic is to describe and to explain the unaware knowledge all speakers have about their language. Therefore, linguistics is a subject of study that is built on languages. Noam Chomsky (1957) argues that “Language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length, and constructed out of a finite set of elements” (p.13). According to Aronoff (2007) it is impossible to separate language from literature, or politics, or most of our everyday human interactions. [Linguistics] has a twofold aim: to uncover general principles underlying human language, and to provide reliable descriptions of individual languages (Aitchison, 1992). Also linguists, study individual human and linguistic behavior in order to discover the fundamental properties of this general human language.

Critical pedagogy in ELT classroom: exploring contributions of critical literacy to learners’ critical consciousness

This study is a report on the learning processes and outcomes of a reading course with a critical literacy orientation. Twenty-seven BA freshman English literature students (four males and 23 females) at the age range between 18 and 21 participated in a ‘Reading Comprehension 1’ course at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran. Throughout the course, they were encouraged to deal with the passages they brought to the class in a problem-posing manner. To this end, they were motivated to critically analyze the passages through group discussions and writing reflective journals. The thematic analysis of the collected 126 journals shed light on the development of the students’ critical consciousness which emerged in five themes. A detailed discussion of the findings and suggestions for further research are presented.

Can a teacher certification scheme change ELT classroom practice?

From 1994, the South Korean government has implemented a series of innovations to change English language education from teaching about English to developing students� communicative competence in English. This paper discusses the impact of a teacher certification scheme, one such innovation. The scheme is examined from three perspectives: its design, implementation, and perceived future impact. The discussion draws on documents from the certification scheme, lesson plans, video-recordings, and assessment results from assessed lessons for four candidates and interviews with these teachers. Analysis of this data shows that the scheme has the potential to make future classroom practice more communicative. However, there are a number of factors which seriously inhibit the impact of this scheme and which have implications for future innovations of this type. These include ineffective communication with teachers about the innovation, teachers� perceptions of the relevance of the promoted practice, and the degree of compatibility between the innovation and its wider educational context.