English Language Teaching Department Research Articles

Students' Psychological State Degree and Their Speaking Ability: To What Extent is the Link?

Effective communication among students is often hindered by various obstacles, including reticence, self-doubt, inadequacy, apathy, fear of making mistakes, and apprehension. These challenges are notably evident in their speaking skills. This study aimed to explore the psychological conditions of students from the English Language Education Department (ELED) and relate these conditions to their speaking abilities. A quantitative approach was adopted, using an explanatory correlation design. Data was gathered from 117 third-year students at a private university using a survey and a written assessment. Results showed students' mental well-being was categorized as poor with a mean score of M=45.03. Contrastingly, their speaking proficiency was rated excellent, with a mean score of M=64.24 on the Pearson scale. Correlation analysis was applied to determine the relationship between the two variables. The results yielded a p-value of 0.001, below the 0.05 threshold, thus accepting the alternative hypothesis (H1). A significant relationship between the students' psychological states and speaking abilities was established.

EFL Students' Language Learning Strategies at Argumentative Writing Class at UNIROW Tuban

The focus of this research is on EFL students’ language learning strategies used in Argumentative Writing class at UNIROW Tuban. It sought to determine the students’ most frequent language learning strategies and the strategies’ distinctions between students, both male and female. The descriptive qualitative was employed as the design of research for this study. The study's participants are 15 EFL students enrolled in Argumentative Writing class from English Language Education department undergraduate program of UNIROW Tuban. The questionnaire and interview data were qualitatively examined using Oxford's (1990) theories of language learning. It was identified that there were six kinds of language learning strategies used by the students, namely memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies. The findings showed that in the Argumentative Writing class, both genders of students most frequently employed cognitive strategies (30,1%). Additionally, it was discovered that female students (23,5%) employed more varied language learning strategies than male students (22,5%). The cognitive strategies appear to be the finest support strategies employed in Argumentative Writing class that can overcome students' writing limitations.

PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ DIGITAL COMPETENCIES: A TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIUM TOWARD LANGUAGE TEACHING

Given the subsequent turn of the epidemic in language education field, this study aimed to investigate the perceptions of pre-service teachers in the English Language Education Department of Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia toward their own digital competencies within their teaching performance. Regarding the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), pre-service teachers are expected to have sufficient high-level digital competencies. In this context, digital competencies are seen as a means to transform language education in the post-pandemic era. In this study, digital competencies refer to five dimensional skills, namely ‘information and data literacy’, ‘communication and collaboration’, ‘digital content creation’, ‘security’, and ‘problem solving’. Fifty-five (55) pre-service teachers who were still enrolled in some particular ICT courses and who performed online teaching participated in the study by completing the Teacher Competency Framework Questionnaire and doing an interview session to assess their digital competencies in the use of ICT within online teaching context. The results showed that the pre-service teachers placed a high value on all five dimensions of digital competence to facilitate their online teaching through the use of ICT, covering both technological and pedagogical functions, making their online teaching delivered more beneficially and effectively. The more acknowledgements toward the role of their digital competencies and required skills of ICT use for pre-service teachers have been increasing due to the switching from offline to online classroom settings as a consequence of COVID-19 pandemic. However, further research into integrated curriculum planning based on the schoolwide ICT curriculum is recommended to promote constructive strategies to support the development of the pre-service teachers’ digital competencies. The much wider digital competencies scope and more specific pre-service teachers ICT educational programs investigation should be adapted in the future research to provide deeper and further analysis toward the pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy about their own digital competencies in online learning context at the same time.

İngilizceyi Yabancı Dil Olarak Öğreten Eğitmenlerin Türk Yükseköğretiminde Kültürlerarası Farkındalıklarını Araştırmak

Korzilius, van Hoft, and Planken (2007) suggest that intercultural awareness involves being empathetic and being able to shift away from one's perspective. In a communication setting, intercultural awareness refers to the capacity to adopt the viewpoint(s) of conversation partners from a different culture and to comprehend and acknowledge their unique cultural backgrounds. In this context, the aim of this study is to explore the intercultural awareness of EFL instructors in the context of Turkish Higher Education. Participants are 50 EFL instructors from the English Language Teaching Department and the School of Foreign Languages in Türkiye. The current study adopted a quantitative design; the data tool is the English Language Instructors’ Questionnaire for Intercultural Awareness’ The data is analyzed via the Mann-Whitney U test. The data from the questionnaire is analyzed in two contexts: Intercultural Awareness of Native and Non-Native and Novice and Expert Instructors. As the findings of the study suggest there are significant differences between the attitudes of Native / Non-Native as well as for the Novice and Expert Instructors for Intercultural Awareness.

CORPUS USED AS A DATA-DRIVEN LEARNING TOOL IN L2 ACADEMIC WRITING: EVIDENCE FROM TURKISH CONTEXTS

This study investigated the effectiveness of using corpus as a data-driven learning (DDL) tool to enhance the academic writing skills of Turkish EFL learners. The study also explored learners’ views of the potential use of corpus in L2 academic writing. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-method sequential explanatory design was employed, involving freshman student teachers enrolled in the Department of English Language Teaching at a state university in Turkey. The participants completed four argumentative essay writing tasks. Two tasks employed conventional techniques for error correction, while the other two utilized corpus as a reference tool for error correction. The latter two tasks were complemented by corpus training for the participants. The results indicated that using corpus as a DDL tool had a significant impact on the academic writing skills of Turkish EFL learners, with notable improvements observed in both grammar and vocabulary use. Participants also expressed positive feedback on the use of corpus as a DDL tool in enhancing their L2 academic writing.

Grade variations across EFL, CLIL, and EMI platforms: A longitudinal case study in an English language teaching department

Fluctuations and distortions in grade point averages (GPAs) can affect its usefulness as a measure of achievement. Against a backdrop of increasing internationalisation in higher education, such instabilities may be exacerbated by heterogeneous student populations and the varying role of language on English as a foreign language (EFL), content and language integrated learning (CLIL), and English as a medium of instruction (EMI) platforms. Accordingly, using descriptive and inferential statistics, we explored the distribution patterns of 58,324 grades awarded over a 10-year period at a major university in Bangkok, Thailand. We found evidence of longitudinal grade increase, grade compression, and grade disparity—all of which suggest the presence of grade inflation. Specifically, across the three teaching platforms, mean GPAs increased significantly as lettered grades compressed upwards, clustering around C and C+ levels. Grade disparity, meanwhile, decreased between courses and levels but increased between student populations (i.e., English majors were awarded significantly higher grades than non-English majors were). Based on our findings, we argue for more standardised assessment practices to tackle grade censorship and saturation, as well as potential elevations/reductions in graduating GPAs of admixed student populations. We also propose a new method to quantify and track mean GPAs through quartile measurements.

The Conundrum of Identity in the Omani Higher Education: A Case Study of an English Language Teaching (ELT) Context

The developing status of the Omani higher education has made this sector subject to both national and global influences. Such influences created inconsistencies between the demands of the local context and those of the increasingly globalizing context, which resulted in a nationally diverse faculty body. This paper draws on the Social Identity Approach (SIA) and the intersectionality theory to argue that identity in the workplace could be understood better through focusing on processes rather than individual narratives since processes reveal much of the complexity of prototypes especially when applied to workgroups. The paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study conducted in an English language-teaching department in Oman. The study explored identity intersectionalities within a workgroup by analyzing the data generated through 16 interviews, eight meeting observations and document analysis. The thematic analysis reveals that identities are constructed based on intersections of language, nationality, contract and professional identity. Such intersections were evident in relation to the process of recruitment, employment security and retention, staff inclusion, and professional identity enactment. These findings demonstrate that analyzing identity at the intra-categorical level sheds light on its effects at the individual level. The paper concludes by highlighting theoretical and practical implications that are relevant to ELT contexts internationally.

MEDIATING ROLE OF TEACHER AND CLASSMATE SUPPORT IN THE RELATIONSHIP OF SELF-EFFICACY AND ENGLISH-SPEAKING ANXIETY, IN UNIVERSITY SAMPLE

The main purpose of this research is to assess the influence of teacher and student support in reducing speaking anxiety. Learners' self-efficacy was also explored in relation to the influence of teacher and classmate support on lowering speaking fear. For the goals of the study, 94 English Language Teaching Department (ELT) students from Atatürk University in Türkiye participated as the study's working group during the autumn term of the 2021-2022 academic year. The information was gathered using the Classmate Support Scale, the Teacher Support Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the English-Speaking Anxiety Scale. The Amos and SPPS 22 programs were used to examine the data. The SPSS Macro Process tool was utilized in the study to compute the indirect impact estimates of the variables. The findings revealed a link between teacher support and self-efficacy. Moreover, classmate support exhibited a favorable relationship with self-efficacy. The findings demonstrated that the stronger the learner's self-efficacy, the less speaking anxiety they experienced during oral presentations. These findings indicate that teacher and classmate support have mediating roles in the link between ELT university students' self-efficacy and English-speaking anxiety.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0039/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

THE IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AMONG ACEHNESE EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

It is well known that the belief systems of teachers have a considerable impact on teaching. In the end, teachers' beliefs—which also affect their consciousness, teaching attitude, teaching methods, and teaching policies—have an impact on students' development (Shinde & Karekatti, 2012). Although there has been extensive research on teachers' beliefs, there has not been much done explicitly on teachers' or pre-service teachers' religious beliefs. Therefore, this study sought to understand the significance of religious beliefs in Aceh's EFL pre-service teachers' lives. Five pre-service teachers from an English Language Education Department at one of the Islamic universities in Aceh provided the data in the form of reflective journals and interviews. Using codes and themes, the collected data underwent a qualitative analysis. The results showed that religion had an impact on pre-service teachers in five areas, including going through a tough period, participating in religious activities, interacting with others, seeking knowledge, and considering their future careers.

EXPLORING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS EXPERIENCES TOWARDS SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE LEARNING AMIDST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, learning systems all around the world have shifted from traditional classrooms to online learning. Synchronous learning was developed to promote online learning interactions via audio, video, text chat, interactive whiteboards, and app-sharing audio, video, and text chat. This study focused on how the English Language Education Department (ELED) pre-service teachers experience participating in synchronous online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. The participants involved in this research were six ELED pre-service teachers. This research was conducted at English Language Education Department at one Islamic Private University in Yogyakarta. As a research design, the researcher used descriptive qualitative. The information was obtained through an interview. The result showed that pre-service teachers participated in synchronous online learning activities such as listening to lectures, doing a group discussion, doing a presentation, and completing evaluations. There were also various tools that made learning easier for pre-service teachers, such as sharing screen, recording, camera, and microphone. Regarding the perceptions of the ELED pre-service teachers, this study revealed some positive impacts and negative impacts of synchronous learning as perceived by the pre-service teachers. The positive impacts were flexibility in learning, a variety of ways of learning, live interaction, and more autonomous learning. Otherwise, the negative impact of synchronous learning was missed learning activity, lack of interaction, undelivered messages, and feeling isolated.

The Voice of ELT Students at Islamic College on Academic Life

Research shows that student voice might be an influencing factor in the future transformation and innovation of English language teaching (ELT). The voice has long been believed to be an instrument that could provide ELT practitioners and policymakers with meaningful feedback for the betterment of curricula, materials, and classroom practices. However, there are limited discussions exploring ELT student voice in such particular educational contexts as Islamic colleges. This article aims to contribute to our understanding of that rarely discussed voice with a particular focus on: (a) the students’ best experience as English education students at an Islamic college; (b) the students’ perceptions related to dress code and exams; and (3) the students’ self-assessment of English language skills. This study presents a survey study on 278 students in the English language education department at an Islamic college in Lampung province, Indonesia. The data are drawn from a survey consisting of open-ended questions distributed to the respondents at the end of the semester. Data analysis was conducted qualitatively, ranging from preparing and organizing the data to interpreting the meaning of the data in line with the research questions and theoretical review. The findings reveal that among the students' best experiences were the Islamic atmosphere, affordable tuition fees, religious education, professional lecturers, and scholarship availability. The majority of students agreed with the dress code regulation and had problems with cheating on the final examinations. The findings also show that more than half of the respondents are not sure about their English competency. This study offers important implications for English teacher education in Islamic educational contexts.

ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH WRITING ERRORS IN EFL LEARNERS’ RECOUNT TEXT

This research discusses the analysis of students' errors in writing recount texts. This study aims to analyze the types of errors made by undergraduate students’ writing scores at the English Language Teaching Department at one of the universities in Cirebon. This study focuses on writing errors taken from three categories of English proficiency levels (low, average, high). This study used the descriptive qualitative method. There were six participants. The data were taken from their recount text writing results. The results of this study show that there are four types of errors based on Surface Strategy Taxonomy by students: Omission, Addition, Misinformation, and Misordering. The result of the total number of student errors is 37 which contains 14 Omission (37.83%), three Addition (8.11%), 19 Misinformation (51.36%), and one Misordering (2.70%). The most errors were made by Misinformation, with 19 errors (51.36%). It can be concluded that the ability of undergraduate students at one university in Cirebon is still low in writing recount text.

EXPLORING THE EMOTIONAL GEOGRAPHIES OF TEAM TEACHING LECTURER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

Emotions undoubtedly surface, which teachers face while resulting from the session. It is consistent with Hargreaves' view that teaching, learning, and leadership have an irrevocably emotional nature, whether on purpose or accidentally. The study seeks to evaluate an English teacher's experiences. According to Webster and Mertova (2007), narrative inquiry is based on human tales, which give a framework for investigating how people experience the world through their stories. Webster and Mertova state that narrative inquiry is a subfield of narrative research. The inquiry aimed to examine the emotional geography of team teaching lecturers in the English Language Education Department. A 33-year-old male English lecturer at a private University in Majalengka enhanced his professionalism by participating in several international and national conferences, which reflected the aspects of social and emotional well-being, such as presenting his article and having some discussions with other scholars. During the team teaching, the participants were given the opportunity and trust to do every single activity from the beginning to the end. His teaching partner treated him very well in implementing various programs within the team teaching. In brief, the emotional geographies contribute to developing a lecturer’s professional and cognitive aspects, which have been implemented during the instructional process. They also influence the way students learn and follow the lecturer’s instructions and potentially shape them to have a good attitude when interacting with each other.

The benefits of English-speaking group for speaking fluency: Acehnese EFL students� perceptions

As speaking is essential to be mastered, various strategies are applied, one of them is through English-speaking group. The objective of this study is to explore more about the students point of view regarding the beneficial impact of English-speaking group for speaking fluency. Interview was selected as the data collection procedure in this study, in which five female students from Intermediate Language Skill class were participated in this study as the respondents. They were the second semester students at English Language Education Department of Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. The results of this study revealed that the participants showed positive responses toward forming English-speaking group as it gave great effects on their speaking fluency. They stated that this speaking group provided supportive environment for speaking activity, increased their confidence, improved self-evaluation, and strengthened the relationship among the members of the group.

Tertiary English students’ learning motivation and critical thinking skills

This paper highlights the importance of learning motivation and critical thinking skills to an EFL learner. Apart from gaining language ability in speaking, reading, listening, and writing, an EFL learner must also be equipped with other factors or skills to succeed. Hence, this study aimed to determine how much learning motivation correlates with critical thinking skills amongst tertiary English Language Education Department students at Universitas Islam Indonesia. By deploying a purposive sampling technique, 50 participants were involved in this study. It comprises 16 male students (32%) and 34 female students (68%). Critical thinking and learning motivation questionnaires were utilized to garner the data, and the data were further analyzed using the product-moment correlation. This study also utilizes in-depth interviews to gain more perspective on critical thinking, learning motivation, and how it shapes behavior. The results demonstrated that learning motivation positively and significantly correlated with critical thinking skills. Across varied levels, contexts, and periods, the current study confirmed the persistent theory concerning the correlation between learning motivation and critical thinking, as prior related studies already demonstrated. Further studies are called to be conducted by engaging a more significant number of samples to reveal broader insights

İngilizce Öğretmen Adaylarının Kalıplaşmış Dil Kullanımına İlişkin Farkındalıkları: Dil Öğretimi İçin Çıkarımlar

The present paper aimed to explore pre-service English teachers’ awareness of formulaic language use. The study involved 41 senior students who were enrolled in the English Language Teaching Department at a state university in Turkey. Data of this cross-sectional study was collected through a formulaic language awareness form, which included three main parts. Firstly, participants were asked to write down three words that come to their mind concerning formulaic expressions, and their own definition of formulaic expressions. Secondly, they were required to place given formulaic expressions into the correct group on Kecskes’s Continuum Table. Finally, they were asked to identify formulaic expressions from a given text. Content and descriptive analysis were used to analyse the data and reveal the awareness of formulaic expressions among pre-service English teachers. The results indicated that the participants were somewhat familiar with the concept of formulaic expressions. They were able to identify grammatical units, phrasal verbs, and idioms, but struggled with identifying and grouping other fixed expressions. They also had difficulties classifying formulaic expressions and mis-grouped them. As a result, the study found that pre-service English teachers’ awareness of formulaic language use was moderate.

Students Code-switching and Code-mixing in Spoken Communication Activities at English Language Education Department of UIN Mataram

The research aims to know the types of code mixing, the type of code switching and the factors of code-switching and code-mixing in the process of learning English in 6th semester students of the English Language Education department of UIN Mataram. This research was used descriptive qualitative approach. The subject of this study was one of the classes in the British American Australian course. The research applies observation, interviews and documents in collecting data. The study reveals that (1) there are 2 types of code mixing namely Insertion and alternation;(2) there are 2 types of code switching namely Intra-Sentential and Intra-Sentential; (3) there are 4 factors that cause students did code switching and code mixing in class namely situation, talking about a particular topic, difficulties to finding equivalent words in language in used, and intention of clarifying the speech content for interlocutor.

Challenges Of a Hard of Hearing Learner in Online Language Education

While inclusive education (IE) is embraced at the conceptual level and desired at the classroom level, successful IE implementation remains highly complex. COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) outbreak which necessitated a quick switch to remote instruction made IE even harder to put into practice. Despite several studies regarding inclusion during face-to-face education, there has been quite limited research on online education and inclusive practices. This exploratory case study of qualitative nature took place at a state university in the southeast of Turkey with three participants: a hard of hearing (HH) English as a foreign language learner who is a freshman enrolled at the English Language Education Department and his two instructors. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews, journals, and narrative reports. Interviews were conducted with the student about the challenges he had and instructors’ practices during distance education, and with instructors about their general opinions towards IE and their online education practices regarding the inclusion of that student. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The analyses of student data revealed one major theme as “rechallenge” of an already challenging life and subthemes as nature of online education, instructors’ practices, delayed/ limited feedback, and lack of interaction. Instructors’ data revealed themes as beliefs and attitudes towards IE and need for training. Findings presented the challenges of online education for a HH pupil with significant implications, suggesting many solutions to the problems HH learners face, and raising public awareness on IE.

Niversite Öğrencileri için Okuma Olgunluğu Ölçeğinin Türkçeye Uyarlanması: Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

This study aims to adapt the Reading Maturity Survey (RMS) developed by Thomas, Yao, Katherine, and Kreiner (2018) into Turkish to determine the reading maturity level of university students. The study group of the research consisted of 734 students studying at the university level. In the first phase of the adaptation study, three experts working in the Department of English Language Teaching and a total of 126 university students with sufficient command of both languages were worked with, and language validity practices were completed. After the Turkish language validity was established, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed to determine the scale’s construct validity. To determine the reliability of the items in the scale, the Cronbach α internal reliability coefficients were calculated. To determine the distinctiveness of the items, the item-total correlations were calculated, and the significance of the difference between the item scores of the upper 27% and lower 27% groups determined according to the total score was determined by the t-test. The study’s findings show that the Turkish version of the RMS is a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine the reading maturity levels of Turkish university students.

Analysing English Language Education Department Students’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties and Strategies

This research aimed to reveal students' internal and external difficulties in dealing with listening comprehension tests. The research was conducted in the English Language Education Department at a private university in Batam. The total of participants was 32 students, including second and third-year students. The data were analysed through mix-method, using three different instruments: a questionnaire, a listening comprehension test and an interview to collect students' perceptions of their challenges and the listening strategy applied. The students were categorised into two groups: intermediate and advanced students. The findings show that students tend to lose track of long conversation due to a lack of background knowledge and apply an ineffective strategy. Intermediate students utilised the combination of cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies as advanced students did; however, they still needed to obtain unsatisfactory results due to ineffective strategies. Thus, this research can be useful for educational practitioners, syllabus developers, and students, in general, to be aware of the apprehension and exhibit a suitable strategy to minimise the issue.