English Language Teaching Contexts Research Articles

In Quest for Reliable English Language Testing Practices in Secondary Education

This paper reports on the current English language teaching context and reformed foreign language policies in the Republic of Serbia. Although the objectives, contents and outcomes formulated in national curricula for all educational levels have been designed in compliance with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, there is not much evidence on the learning outcomes achieved by students at the end of secondary education. In other words, there are no standardized testing practices present in the secondary education system that would, on the one hand, objectively show to which extent the prescribed outcomes have been achieved, and, on the other, serve as a diagnostic tool that pinpoints which aspects in teaching, learning and assessment practices should be improved. This paper focuses on the issue of assessment and draws attention to the need to introduce reliable testing practices of foreign languages that would serve as the objective indicators of the outcomes achieved, which would, in turn, provide feedback on teaching and learning practices. Through the analysis of the results obtained from grammar, vocabulary and reading tests taken by a group of secondary school graduates, the most common errors have been detected and explained. The results show that the commonest errors result from the lack of understanding of the use of English in a context that demands more than just a straightforward application of rules as used in isolated sentences, and the most demanding reading tasks comprised inference and implication questions. This study aims to research the errors and, subsequently, to investigate the implications relevant in English language teaching and testing and point at the segments that need to be worked on more in English language classes.

Tracking motivational changes in self-initiated professional development in ELT: a single-case analysis

ABSTRACT While motivation has been recognized as a key catalyst for the uptake of self-initiated professional development (PD), motivational changes that occur in the course of self-initiated PD practices remain unexplored in English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts and beyond. Yet this research area warrants closer attention since motivation is a dynamic construct displaying nonlinear trajectories over multiple timescales. The exploratory single-case study reported here aims to tackle changes in motivation and the sources of these changes as reported by an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teacher trainee who engaged in ELT assistantship in a real classroom as a self-driven PD activity over four months in Turkey. Drawing on data from self-ratings of perceived motivational intensity, journal entries, and semi-structured interviews, the analyses showed that the focal participant’s motivational development manifested a constantly evolving pattern with temporal ups and downs, fluctuating in response to a complex array of individual and contextual factors such as shifting self-efficacy beliefs, display of coping efforts, perceived success/failure of the lessons, and group dynamics in the classroom. Implications for facilitating (trainee) teachers’ sustainable engagement in self-directed learning are discussed.

The Role of Culture Awareness in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Many modern researchers have explained the need and rationale for a wide range of cultural studies in combination with foreign language teaching. However, questions remain as to the content selection, forms of work and technologies that provide students with active interactions, and complete immersion. The paper focuses on the research questions: How can cultural knowledge and understanding be incorporated into the context of English language teaching? Findings indicates that including a culturally appropriate approach to foreign language instruction into professional training improves the art and cultural awareness of aspiring English teachers by allowing them to apply their acquired cultural knowledge in cross-cultural communication scenarios. It helps people become more focused on their jobs. Their motivation is increased, and an environment of openness and inquiry is fostered via cultural studies. The questionnaire was completed by 24 respondents.Keywords : pedagogic competence, teachers, cooperative learning

Disparity, Empowerment and Female English Language Teacher in Higher Education Context in Bangladesh: A Narrative Inquiry

The existing literature while highlighting learner empowerment, carefully gives less attention to the fact of empowering female teachers in adult English language teaching context. In most contexts worldwide teaching foreign languages is a feminine job (Ortiz &Serrano, 2020; Bashiruddin, 2018; Kollmayer et.al., 2020; Tindowen, 2019), and that mostly remains at a disadvantaged position as she works ‘within a network of power relations’. Hence it is very essential to scrutinize and understand the micro-dynamics of the female teacher’s journey of sense-making and her employment of coping strategies at the time and point of professional disempowerment. This in-depth narrative inquiry tries to investigate the issues that support a female teacher in empowering herself in professional landscapes. In this regard, I used the narrative inquiry research design and exploited semi-structured interviews with six female teachers to generate data to show how female teachers struggle(d) to achieve parity to empower themselves and their learners. Fraser’s (2008; 2009; 2012) notion of ‘participatory parity’ was used here as the theoretical ground to analyze the findings that empowerment is a theory of social change. The result has come out with the view that any attempt at school reform should be synonymous with the most active models of female teacher empowerment to advance student achievement, collegiality, and professional learning. This study thus contributes to the empowerment literature of female English language teachers in the higher education context.

The resurgence of eibungaku in Japanese ELT: A critical reflection on whitewashing in recently published eibumpō textbooks

ABSTRACT Recently, a number of eibungaku [English and American literature]-based eibumpō [English grammar] textbooks have been published in Japan. Historically, teaching English by using eibungaku materials at university level was mainstream or at least common in Japanese English language teaching (ELT) up to the 1990s. However, the government-led educational reforms over the past couple of decades shifted the focus from eibungaku to practical English. Against the grain of this shift, scholars of eibungaku are now trying to reintroduce English and American literary texts as ELT materials. While following the historical trajectory of English education in Japan, this article attempts to make sense of this resurgence of eibungaku in Japanese ELT. Findings reveal that these textbooks canonize whitewashed English. The article points to the importance of rethinking eibungaku in the ELT context from the perspectives of World Englishes to bring out the potentiality of literature as an ELT material.

The Integration of Islamic Values in English Language Teaching Context: Practices and Challenges

Studies on the integration of moral, cultural, and religious values in the non-religion subject have been greatly raised in these recent years. This research aims to find out the teachers’ strategy and challenges encountered in integrating Islamic values in English language teaching. The descriptive method with a qualitative approach is employed in this research. The subject of this research consists of three English teachers who teach in different grades from seventh to ninth at SMP Pesantren Modern IMMIM Putra Makassar. The data of this research are obtained from the observation sheet and interview guide. The data analysis technique in this research uses three steps, namely identification, classification, and explanation. The result of this research shows that there are four strategies employed by English teachers in integrating Islamic values in ELT. First, the teachers give direct advice to the students. Second, the teachers associate the lesson topic with pertinent Islamic teaching by quoting verses from the Qur’an and/or Hadith. Third, the teachers get the students used to worship through the habituation of religious activities. Fourth, the teachers refer to someone, or themselves to introduce some Islamic values to the students. The teachers also encounter several challenges in integrating Islamic values in ELT. First, the limited availability of English textbooks integrated to Islamic values. Second, the teachers have limited knowledge of how to optimally integrate Islamic values into the teaching and learning process. Third, the teachers have a limited time to provide and prepare the English learning materials associated to Islamic values. Further studies such as research and development of English textbooks that integrated to Islamic values for high school students are expected to be conducted in an attempt to solve the teachers’ challenges revealed in this research.

A professional development course to face the current challenges

The context of English language teaching has undergone significant changes in recent years, impacting all elements involved, including students, teachers, materials, methodologies, challenges, and outcomes. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was forced to continue teaching and learning to the best of their abilities. Although classes have largely returned to their pre-pandemic format, the lessons learned from remote and online teaching cannot be disregarded as the experience also revealed the futility of some former live classroom activities. To address this issue, a teacher development course has been created to assist educators in evaluating their current practices and enhancing them by drawing on the knowledge gained and resources employed during the pandemic. This online and asynchronous course provides educators with an opportunity to embrace change to better learning outcomes for students.

Introducing Culture in EFL Class: The Junior High School Teachers’ Awareness

The integration of culture into language teaching, particularly in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class, is widely regarded as an essential aspect of English teaching. The objective of this study is to explore the 7th-grade teachers’ awareness of Junior High school on introducing culture in EFL class. The research employed a quantitative survey in 26 junior high schools located in Palembang, South Sumatra. The data were collected from 115 English teachers who responded to a set of questionnaire items. Subsequently, the data underwent analysis by the use of descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that English teachers at the seventh-grade level are aware of incorporating cultural components within the context of English language teaching. To begin with, it is evident that the teachers possess a comprehensive understanding of the significance of culture and context in interpreting meaning. Furthermore, the teachers have a fundamental experience of the significance of being able to analyze and contrast cultures concerning their shared characteristics and distinctions. Thirdly, the teachers widely acknowledge that cultural learning has a predominantly positive influence within the English classroom. In the realm of English teaching, the teachers have a consensus regarding the significance of incorporating cultural learning activities into the classroom setting. Ultimately, junior high school English teachers exhibit a predominantly favorable disposition towards the significance of including cultural learning activities inside the English instructional setting

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.

The Perceptions of the Use of Translanguaging as a Form of Oral Feedback in Indonesian Tertiary English Language Teaching Context

As the practice of using different languages to extend the process of knowledge construction, translanguaging is often performed in teachers’ corrective feedback in foreign language classrooms. The research aimed to analyze students’ perception of the implementation of translanguaging as a form of oral corrective feedback in an EFL-speaking context at a private university in Indonesia. This study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design through two phases of data collection: a questionnaire (N=60) and semi-structured interviews (N=8). The findings of this study indicate that students perceive translanguaging as a beneficial practice in implementing oral corrective feedback in the EFL-speaking classroom, such as increasing the chances for language acquisition, empowering students to take educational risks, creating a more welcoming and socially inclusive learning environment due to students’ diverse language proficiency, and increasing in-classroom participation and engagement. However, it is also perceived that translanguaging should not be used too excessively to avoid confusion amongst students with lower target language proficiency. It is recommended that teachers give students a fair chance to interact meaningfully with more than one language by including translanguaging oral feedback as a pedagogical strategy, to help students reach their academic goals, notice differences in language, and promote bilingualism and biliteracy. The students' positive opinions of translanguaging highlighted its potential as an effective pedagogical technique. It is also hoped that this research becomes a basis for establishing English language teaching policies that are appropriate to the multilingual pedagogical context in Indonesia.

The Challenge EFL Teachers Face in Turkey: Burnout

Burnout is quite common in educational settings for a variety of reasons and may specifically affect the lives of teachers, especially English language teachers. Therefore, it needs to be analyzed in detail and resolved by policymakers in education. To reveal this significant drawback, this research aims to examine the research studies on the issue of burnout among English as foreign language teachers from primary schools to higher education that were carried out in the English language teaching context in Turkey between 2012 and 2022 through a systematic review. 19 research studies done in Turkey were obtained and the findings of the studies related to the burnout challenge of Turkish English language teachers were scrutinized. Based on the findings of the study, English teachers are the most prevalent demographic to have a variety of ailments due to burnout, which is caused by extended exposure to high levels of stress, chronic fatigue, unhappiness, and feelings of inefficacy. The unique finding of this study is that English teachers are mainly faced with challenging and stressful conditions in their daily teaching life as they are forced to adapt to changing student profiles and technological advancements as well as rising demands of society and as a result, they struggle with burnout even if they are still in their early years of teaching English. In the meanwhile, their commitment to in-service training and the support of their superiors are crucial and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is also important. Besides, a comprehensive strategy that includes regulatory modifications, encouraging work conditions, and professional development opportunities is required to address English teacher burnout in Turkish society and thus, by prioritizing teacher well-being, education policies can have a positive influence on the education sector by ensuring the availability of motivated and effective English instructors who can provide high-quality education to students and these policies could eradicate negative views and provide the respect for the teaching profession by fostering a resilient English teaching workforce while mitigating the risks of burnout.

Feminist Academic Activism in English Language Teaching: The Need to Study Discourses on Femininities Critically

Social research into English Language Teaching (ELT) has a long history. Within it, gender studies have gained ground in recent decades, with special focus on materials and resources. However, a proper integration of the category of femininity has not yet been achieved. The article offers an ample, argumentative, narrative literature review of the main realizations of femininity, as theorized in recent years, such as emphasized femininity or entitled femininity, as well as some other concepts like ambivalent sexism and postfeminism. It is written as the second item within a series of papers that aims to theoretically support the assumption of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis as a suitable method to discover how all these social phenomena interact in ELT contexts, helping to shape its (gender’s) hidden curriculum. The paper concludes the necessity of integrating the issue of femininities in teacher training programs and in social research in ELT, for the sake of making this field more a liberating practice and less a means of (re)production of (gender) inequalities. To do so, it offers areas of interest for critical researchers and ELT practitioners to carry out such empirical investigation, which is the upcoming stage in this sequence of publications.

Integrating augmented reality and problem-based learning into English language teaching through instructional design

This article aims at discussing how ADDIE, a systematic instructional design approach, can be used to integrate augmented reality technology and Problem-Based Learning pedagogy into English language classrooms. We present a brief retrospective view of the Brazilian English language teaching scenarios to which our proposal is addressed. Afterwards, we provide definitions to ADDIE approach, Problem-Based Learning and augmented reality into the context of English language teaching with technologies. We also propose the integration of the foregoing approaches through practical examples. Our discussion envisions possible impacts of appropriating augmented reality in language teaching classrooms, especially considering the particularities of a continental-scale country as Brazil during the paradoxical times we live in.

Intersectional Identity Studies in Colombian ELT: A Profiling Research Study

This article aims at sharing the preliminary literature review of the main developments related to Intersectional Identities in Colombian English Language Teaching and general educational contexts worldwide. First, I trace the research work concerning the topic at both national and international levels through a bibliometric analysis in Scopus to see the main developments regarding intersectionality from a decolonial perspective. Then, I show through a complementary bibliometric study, 50 articles that were collected from different databases, and the trends found as representation of intersectional studies. The analysis indicates two core trends: (1) Intersectional studies in general educational contexts and (2) Intersectional studies in ELT contexts. Finally, I present how this profiling research study shows that the topic of Intersectional Identities in Colombia seems scarce within the field of ELT.

Applying Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) Model for Course Evaluation

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the course titled ELT Pedagogy and Materials from the M.Ed. III semester programme of education under Tribhuvan University by using context, input, process and product (CIPP) model. The evaluation process had gone through qualitative research method using purposively selected five M.Ed. graduates and a course teacher as research participants for data collection. The data was obtained through semi-structured interview and story of everyday class experience of research participants to have an in-depth understanding of their phenomenon. The result indicated that the course has sufficiently identified the needs of secondary level teachers but there seems a lack of coordination between theory and practice. Both students and teachers agreed that objectives of the course are very realistic. However, micro context could not be covered such as lack of focusing in rural context of English language teaching (ELT) and also teachers could not come out from stereotypical teaching pedagogy, brought a sort of disappointment regarding the course and its outcome. Hence, this study implies the worth of implication of CIPP model for programme evaluation and helps to mitigate its pedagogical challenges for better teaching and learning outcomes.

Blended Learning Effectiveness: A Quasi-Experimental Study on Students’ ESP Achievement

Blended Learning, a mixture of face-to-face (FTF) and online learning, has gained its popularity in the English language teaching context. However, examining its efficacy in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) remains scares. To fill this gap, this study implemented BL in an Indonesian ESP classroom and examined its effect on students’ learning attainment and the challenges they encountered. Drawing on the data garnered from pre- and post-tests, it was unveiled that using BL promoted the students’ learning outcomes given the statistical evidence was 0.000 which means lower than 0.05. Three main challenges of blended learning implementation were also identified, namely limitation of proper media, time allocation, and instructional aspect. This study incapsulates that the use of Blended Learning could promote students’ English language skills. This study recommends that future studies be carried out involving more participants and more varied ESP classes to gain more robust results.

Challenges of Online English Language Teaching and Learning at Secondary Schools in Bangladesh

Virtual classrooms manifest a burgeoning pedagogic instrument in current English language teaching and learning contexts around the globe; the use of which was significantly increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Such practices can also be traced to the secondary-level educational context in Bangladesh. Alike the traditional classroom, these virtual classrooms are not without challenges. To unravel such challenges of online English classes at the secondary level in a developing country context like Bangladesh, a qualitative research framework was used in this research. As such, the current study utilized qualitative data collection instruments to collect in-depth information about the individual, course, contextual and technological challenges of online English language education at the secondary level in Bangladesh, based on Anderson and Grönlund’s (2009) conceptual framework of online education in developing countries. The data was collected from both the learners and the facilitators of such online English language classes and analyzed based on the codes from the conceptual framework of the study. Moreover, data regarding the pedagogic participant-oriented suggestions to encounter such challenges were also collected and analyzed. The findings of the study highlight a range of different pedagogic and contextual challenges in relation to online English education in a developing country context like Bangladesh and draw on its implication to address policy issues as well as pedagogic practices

Debriefing in Online Primary ESL Classrooms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

The meaningfulness of the current educational landscape, where online learning is heavily practised, is often questioned. Experiential learning focuses on the learning process that learners undergo. It is believed to help them to make sense of the learning process through active participation and meaningful reflective practice. Debriefing is an experiential learning strategy that requires learners to reflect on their learning experiences and connect them to real-life situations. However, only a limited number of studies have investigated the use of debriefing in the English language teaching and learning context. To this end, this case study aimed to explore the effects of debriefing in online ESL classrooms and the challenges of online debriefing. The case study was conducted in Bintulu, a town in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, and involved two teachers who were actively conducting online ESL lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews and observations of recorded online ESL lessons with a focus on the debriefing sessions. The findings indicated that debriefing has positive effects on active English language learners as it helps to improve their critical thinking ability as well as their oral and written language proficiency. The challenges of debriefing in online ESL classrooms include learners being hesitant to talk during lessons, teachers facing difficulties in using appropriate debriefing questions, as well as various technical problems.

Uygulamadaki Boşluğa, Öğretim Programı Penceresinden Bir Bakış: 2018 İlkokul ve Ortaokul İngilizce Öğretim Programının İncelenmesi

Following global educational trends, many countries have updated or redesigned their English language teaching (ELT) curricula to equip their citizens with the communication skills needed for the 21st century. Turkey is among those countries where the ELT curriculum for primary and secondary schools was updated in 2018 according to the principles of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). However, problems experienced during the implementation process of the new curriculum imply that some incongruences exist between the intentions and realisations in the Turkish ELT context. To shed some light on the curricular factors that might be hindering the successful implementation of the curriculum, Posner’s (1995) curriculum analysis framework has been applied in this study. It was seen that despite the attention given to objectives, some of these such as, “resembling native speakers” might not be appropriate or realistic for the Turkish context. It was further claimed that the process dimension needs to be strengthened to facilitate the implementation of the curriculum. Finally, it was argued that context-sensitive solutions to suit the local needs through bottom-up approaches should be the priority, if the gaps between formal and operational curricula are to be minimised.

Perceived Acceptance of Enacting Google Docs in an Online Collaborative EFL Writing Classroom

Despite a plethora of studies on the use of Web 2.0 technology in the English language teaching (ELT) landscape during the Covid-19 pandemic, few have examined the extent to which students accept the enactment of Google Docs (GD) for collaborative writing. To fill this void, grounded in Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) theory (Davis, 1989), this study aimed to examine students’ perceived acceptance of GD enactment as a means of online collaborative English as a foreign language (EFL) writing practices. It sought to answer the following main research question: How did the students react to the enactment of Google Docs for collaborative writing in English during the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Attitude towards Using (ATU), and Intention to Use (ITU)? The statistical evidence indicated that GD was user-friendly and useful for the students given the overall Mean score (M=6.0) and the significant effects of all the hypothetically tested variables, significantly influencing their behavior and intention to use the technology. The qualitative evidence showed that internet connection was their sole challenge and that more practical training on using GD would help them better operate it for such a pedagogical purpose. The study encapsulates the feasibility of enacting GD as a medium of online collaborative EFL writing practices in the age of the Covid-19 pandemic. Further research examining the acceptance of GD and other dependent variables, such as learning outcomes, engagement, motivation, and etc., in ELT context would be worthy of investigation