English Teacher Education Research Articles

Revisiting Thompson’s Multicultural Disposition Index in preservice English teacher education in Indonesia

Despite the growing body of literature recognizing the importance of multicultural education in the 21st Century, little is known about the preservice English teachers’ (PSETs) multicultural disposition (MD) in the Indonesian setting. This survey study examined the Multicultural Dispositions Index (MDI) of PSETs. The 22 items of Thompson’s (2009a) MDI scales with four dimensions, i.e., cross-cultural competence, multicultural worldview, knowledge of professional and personal self, and professional skills and commitment, were adopted to explore the PSET MDI in this study. It was a nine-type self-report scale. The study involved 185 PSETs (aged 17–22 years; 146 females and 39 males) from one of well-established teacher education universities in Indonesia. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to confirm the underlying MDI dimensions. The findings showed that the PSETs MDI was best represented by 18 items that emerged into the same four dimensions. It means the PSETs in Indonesia possess the four dimensions of multicultural dispositions, facilitating them to navigate school-level multicultural education. Four items from the original 22 items of MDI must be due to the cross-loading and low factor loading since the value was found to be more than 0.50. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the MDI be revised when used in the Indonesian multicultural context.

Incidental vocabulary acquisition from listening to English teacher education lectures: A case study from Macau higher education.

Some proponents of higher education English as a medium of instruction (EMI) have suggested listening to English lectures provides students the opportunity to incidentally acquire unknown words. A case study was designed to examine this assumption. First, the lexical profiles of 27 Introduction to English Language Teaching first-year undergraduate course lectures were computed to determine how many words students need to know for comprehension. Then an incoming year-1 undergraduate student with an English vocabulary size of 7,500 word families and mastery of the most frequent 3,000 word families listened to these lectures across 13.5 weeks with the purpose of measuring incidental acquisition gains of three aspects of word knowledge for ten targeted words. Lastly, the student’s perceptions about listening to EMI lectures and potentials for this listening inducing incidental acquisition of word knowledge were gathered through a semi-structured interview. The lexical profiling of the entire corpus showed students need knowledge of the most frequent 4,000 English word families plus proper nouns and marginal words for 98% lexical coverage; however, some lectures present students with a more substantial lexical burden than the lectures overall. The student made the most gains in receptive meaning, followed by receptive form, and finally productive meaning. Content analysis of the interview transcript found seven themes representing the student’s perception about listening to EMI lectures and their potential for inducing incidental vocabulary acquisition. While the student found listening to the EMI lectures challenging, he perceived the process as useful in preparing for university studies and a career as a secondary English teacher. The student perceived attention, topic, existing vocabulary knowledge, lecturer’s native language, and lack of interaction with the lecturer to have moderated incidental learning of vocabulary through listening to English lectures. These results indicate a need to confirm whether incoming students’ vocabulary knowledge meet the lexical demands of the EMI lectures given in the Macau context. Furthermore, pedagogical training on teacher talk strategies and orientation training for incoming students should both be provided to ensure students are receiving high quality instruction.

Ideological and Political Education in College English Teaching Based on Production-Oriented Approach

The Guiding Outline for Ideological and Political Construction of Courses in Colleges and Universities and the College English Teaching Guidelines (2020 Edition) put forward new requirements for ideological and political education in the new era. In order to suit the needs of new situation, a probe into the ideological and political education in English teaching based on Production-Oriented Approach (POA) was carried out. It’s proved that this practice is feasible and helpful to combine the ideological and political education and English language teaching. However, some special attention should be paid to when integrating ideological and political education into college English teaching.

Students’ Perception towards the Strategies Used by the Teacher in Teaching English Using Virtual Learning Platforms

The massive emergence of virtual learning platforms in early 2020 has gradually replaced face-to-face interaction in the teaching and learning process throughout the globe. All teachers and students have used virtual learning platforms due to the impact of the Coronaviruses Disease-19 (Covid-19) outbreak since the beginning of December 2019, including teachers and students at MTs. Negeri Palopo. This research aims to figure out students’ perceptions towards the strategies used by the teacher in teaching English using virtual learning platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic at MTs. Negeri Palopo. The method used was a kuantitaf method. Through an online questionnaire, the researchers administered a close-ended questionnaire to the eighth-grade students of MTs Negeri Palopo. The data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative and statistical analysis. The result of this research indicates that the students of MTs. Negeri Palopo had a very positive perception towards the strategies that the teachers used using virtual learning platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a mean score of 74,09.

Strategies of the Infiltration of Aesthetic Education in English Teaching in Primary Schools under the Background of New Curriculum Standards

Strategies of the Infiltration of Aesthetic Education in English Teaching in Primary Schools under the Background of New Curriculum Standards

An Analysis the Used of Code Swtching by the Teacher in Teaching English as Foreign Language at SMA N 3 Singaraja

This study aimed at analyzing the types and functions of code-switching used by teachers in teaching English as a foreign language at SMA N 3 Singaraja. This study is a descriptive qualitative research. The subjects of this study are two English teachers who teach in 11th and 12th grades of language major. Data were collected using observation and interview methods. The instruments used in this study are observation sheets, video recorders, interview guide, and tape recorder. The results showed that there are three types of code-switching used by English teachers. They are intra-sentential code-switching (53%) by teacher 1 and (29%) by teacher 2, inter-sentential code-switching (41%) by teacher 1 and (45%) by teacher 2, and tag code-switching (6 %) by teacher 1 and (26%) by teacher 2. There are three functions of code-switching used by teachers; repetitive function (78%) by teacher 1 and (54%) by teacher 2, affective function (16%) by teacher 1 and (30%) by teacher 2, and topic switch (6%) by teacher 1 and (16%) by teacher 2.

Conceptualizing Graduates Attributes (GAs) in English Language Teacher Education Programs in Oman During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study seeks to contribute to the incipient pool of research on graduate attributes (GAs) by reporting on a study of the GAs of Omani English language teacher (ELT) education programs and the role being played in this area by the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQA), formerly known as Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA). The study was qualitative and examined stakeholders’ perspectives and aspirations concerning the graduate attributes used in English language teacher education programs in Oman during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data for the study was generated by (1) reviewing the pertinent literature, including OAAA’s documents and reports, and (2) interviewing online seven experts and practitioners from ELT programs in Oman. The findings reveal that the participants have diverse views of the GAs. Additionally, higher education institutions (or HEIs) encountered several common challenges with the mapping, actualizing, teaching, and assessing of GAs. Moreover, the existing GAs still need to be reviewed to fit the dynamic requirements of the labor market. The findings of the study have the potential to guide and support English teacher education providers in Oman in developing, reviewing, aligning, and mapping their GAs more effectively and impactfully.

English teacher educators’ engagement with and attitudes towards educational research

Today, the development of research skills in teacher education programs is highly valued. In line with this, this mixed-method case study aimed to examine teachers’ engagement with and attitudes towards educational research in an EFL teacher education program in Mexico. A sample of the population of educators answered the Teacher Attitude Scale towards Educational Research (Ilhan et al.), whereas qualitative data emanated from interviews with 6 teachers. Findings suggest that teacher educators perceive the value of educational research; however, its necessity and applicability cannot be ascertained. Barriers that impede teacher educators’ engagement with research, resulting in a lack of research culture in this context, were also identified.

Pre-Primary English Teacher Education in Macau: Investigating a Teacher Educator’s Beliefs and Practices

This qualitative case study explores a language teacher educator’s beliefs and practices regarding pre-primary English teacher education in Macau. The focal participant was an experienced English language teacher (20 years) and teacher educator who is a native speaker of American English. The data were collected over five years, and include written reflections, classroom observations, course syllabi, and interviews. The findings reveal that the teacher educator held six main beliefs regarding various aspects of language teacher education for the pre-primary level, namely, beliefs about (1) the purpose of pre-primary English teacher education, (2) being a teacher educator, (3) the nature of the teaching methodology course, (4) the students, (5) pre-school learners and learning, and (6) the development of the teaching methodology course. The educator’s beliefs were largely reflected in practice, as revealed in the course design, material selection, teaching, and the design of student assignments and other forms of assessment. The educator adjusted his/her practice over time in response to students’ needs, self-awareness, and the university policies. The teacher educator’s beliefs and practices were shown to be mutually informing.

Exploring EFL Students’ Speaking Anxiety of English Teacher Education Program at One Public University in Jambi

Speaking is one of the most difficult skills in language learning particularly in learning English as a foreign language. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the issues of speaking anxiety, the factors influencing their speaking anxiety, and the strategies they employed to alleviate the anxiety at one English teacher education program in Jambi, Indonesia. In order to collect the data, a semi-structured interview was employed and guided by an interview protocol to stimulate the participants in answering the questions during the interview. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we only had access to invite 12 students to participate in our study-they were nine male and three female student teachers. To select the participants, we employed purposive sampling with a convenience case strategy. Through thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006), we identified three major themes of factors influencing the participants’ speaking anxiety, including 1) language barrier (Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency); 2) psychological issues (low motivation, and personality); and 3) learning proponents (lecturers, classmates, and unfamiliar topic). To alleviate their anxiety, the participants have undertaken strategies, such as 1) self-management (self-practice and doing positive activities) and 2) getting-help strategies (friends’ help and motivation).

Pre-service teachers’ investments in English and construction of professional identity in the Indonesian context

This study explored the pre-service teachers (PSTs) professional identity construction during their teacher education training at a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. It particularly investigated their understanding of the teaching profession and their professional identity, guided by two research questions: 1) what have been the influential aspects of the Indonesian pre-service teachers’ investment in the teaching profession? and 2) what professional identities do the PSTs (re)construct during their teacher education training? A qualitative case study was adopted as the design of this study. Data of this study were collected using an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Participants of this study are eleven PSTs of a private university in Central Java. The obtained data were analyzed by using the theoretical grounding of situated learning, professional identity, and investments. An interpretive approach and thematic analysis were adopted in coding and analyzing the PSTs’ open-ended questionnaire responses and narrative accounts obtained from the interviews. It is found that most aspects of PSTs’ construction of professional identity are their continuous learning participation and contemplation during their training in the English teacher education (ETE) program and their dynamic inner dialogue with their two selves (i.e. the student-self and the teacher-self) during the teaching practicum at school. These influential aspects lead to the emerging professional identity of the PSTs as caring, motivational, pleasant, and empathetic teachers. This result implies the need to emphasize the acquisition of teacher identity and reflective teaching at the heart of teacher education.

EFL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD BLENDED TEACHING

While blended teaching is increasingly becoming popular in higher education all over the world, the concept has recently been paid attention to in Vietnam’s context. However, under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic online teaching and blended teaching suddenly become a popular trend in Vietnamese higher education. Few studies have been conducted to explore topics related to blended learning in Vietnam and the current study was conducted to fill such a gap. This study focuses on exploring English-majored students’ perceptions toward the benefits and challenges of blended leaching in EFL classes. Participants included 440 English-majored students ranging from 18 to 22 years old coming from three study majors namely English Teacher Education, English Language Studies and English Interpretation and Translation in a multi-disciplinary university of 56 years old in Vietnam. Findings reveal that students perceived that blended learning offers them various benefits as well as some challenges. Suggestions are proposed to enhance blended learning for English-majored students in Vietnam and elsewhere.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0939/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Narratives about Being and Becoming English Language Teachers in an ELT Education Program

This article presents an analysis of the narratives written by four pre-service English language teachers (PELTs) during the last semester of their undergraduate program. The study aims to understand the constructions related to being and becoming PELTs and the possible contributions that the English language teacher (ELT) education program provided to shape those identities. The narratives were reconstructed from two narrative frames written by the PELTs and their responses to a narrative interview. The results reveal how participants (re)signify their profession from their experiences in the program, the teaching practicum, and other settings. PELTs construct and consolidate their professional identity initially from a technical perspective. However, their experiences and the guidance of some teacher educators transformed their view of education into a more critical and informed perspective. In conclusion, professional identity could potentially be formed and changed based on the experiences provided throughout the PELTs’ education. Considering this, initial English teacher education programs should establish strategies that contribute to this end from the beginning of undergraduate studies.

Fostering pre-service teachers’ perceived ability to implement dialogic teaching in Turkey: Examining the contributing factors of an intensive short-term teacher education program from the teacher-learners’ vantage point

This study reports the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 3-day intensive short-term teacher education program that was specifically designed and implemented with the aims of fostering English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher-learners’ ability to enact dialogic teaching in their teaching practices. Thirty pre-service English teachers from 13 different universities across Turkey participated in the program and their perspectives of the effectiveness of the program in reaching its objectives were investigated to examine: (1) to what extent they felt their ability to implement dialogic teaching practices had improved, and (2) which specific factors from the program they felt specifically contributed to their development. Data were collected over a 4-week period, and included pre/post-course self-evaluation scales, during-course session evaluation forms, post-course evaluation forms, and interviews. Overall, the findings suggest the importance of intensive short-term teacher education programs with similar objectives consisting of: (1) instructors who are both knowledgeable and good models of what they are teaching in the context they are preparing teachers for; (2) content that is up to date, contextually related, and organized in a way that builds up both knowledge and practical skills; and (3) methods and activities in which teacher-learners experience what they are being taught both from a student’s and teacher’s perspective. The findings of this study hold important implications for various stakeholders involved in English teacher education, and teacher education program development, thus, practical suggestions are discussed regarding how future teacher education programs with related objectives may be designed and implemented to better foster attendees’ ability to apply what they learn at the classroom level.

Perception of Saudi Students About Non-Native English Teachers and Native English Teachers in Teaching English at Jazan University

This study tries to investigate the perception of Saudi students at Jazan University about native English-speaking teachers (NEST) and non-native English-speaking teachers based on their teaching the language skills and grammar. The perception of 50 native English-speaking teachers and 50 non-native English teachers was collected from the students taught by these teachers. The findings show that native English-speaking teachers are outstanding at teaching reading, listening and speaking. In contrast, non-native English-speaking teachers are very good at teaching grammar, reading and writing skills. This study will help the Saudi government employ and hire teachers from other countries where the native language is English and countries where English is the second language. This study will also support the university authorities, educationists, and syllabus designers assigning teachers to teach different language skills based on native and non-native English-speaking teachers.

Language Teacher Education, Reading, and Curriculum Change in Southeast Asia: A Laotian Perspective

This study was conducted to understand issues related to the current practice of English teacher education development in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic with a focus on reading. It recognizes that what pre-service teachers experience both prior to and during their teacher education are important and need to be understood if the goals of teacher education are to be achieved. Previous research found that pre-service teachers’ prior experiences of both reading and learning to read were mostly a matter of learning discrete language items rather than developing comprehension and critical reading, and that these experiences had shaped perceptions about how reading is taught. This study extends this understanding by investigating reading-related pedagogy on a teacher education programme. Its findings highlight a gap between an education policy that promotes communicative language teaching and classroom practice. Therefore, for the goals of policy to be realized in the language classroom, appropriate innovations are needed.

School and social educational vulnerability in Chile: experiences and preparedness of novice teachers of English

ABSTRACT Drawing on Sen’s notion of social justice in the Capability Approach, this paper examines the experiences of a group of novice teachers from English teacher education programmes working in marginalised schools in Chile. Through open-ended surveys and interviews, I investigated how new teachers navigate their first teaching years in contexts of educational vulnerability, how they perceive their teacher education programs and preparation to work in such school contexts, and how they balance the interplay between unfreedoms and the exercise of freedoms to teach students at social risk. The findings reveal the impact of contextless English teacher education programs and how these trigger future teacher motivation to develop a deeper understanding of educational vulnerability and their freedom to move away from language teaching issues to accommodate their teaching based on their care and commitment to their students. This paper closes by making a call for the importance of a grassroots approach in the development of English teacher education programs designed with members of marginalised communities.

The Ambivalences of English Lessons Existing in Indonesian Primary Schools

This article discusses policies governing the English curriculum in Indonesian primary schools. English, as local content or as an extracurricular subject delegated to each school, creates inequality in primary school education as some primary schools offer English learning and many do not, for various reasons such as a lack of qualified human resources at TEYL, or insufficient facilities. This ambivalence eventually creates problems at the primary education level, including a lack of clarity regarding careers for English teachers in primary schools. This results in a limit on the number of tertiary institutions that provide English-teaching education for EYL, so that primary schools in turn employ classroom teachers who have no credentials to teach English in the classroom. This ambivalence would not have occurred if the government had made a firm decision on the existence of English as a subject in Indonesian primary schools. Therefore, the authors of this article make an argument for the importance of mastering English as an international language (EIL) for young learners in non-English-speaking countries, especially in this era of rapid technological development. This article suggests that the government should immediately establish a clear policy regarding the status of English as a primary school subject, and that the curriculum policy in primary schools should no longer designate English as a local content or extracurricular subject, but rather as a compulsory subject which automatically adjusts learning outcomes based on student demographic characteristics. The implication of this article is that English lessons can be taught to all young learners through an eclectic approach.

Guest editorial: Introduction to special issue on disciplinary literacy in English teaching and teacher education

Guest editorial: Introduction to special issue on disciplinary literacy in English teaching and teacher education

Possible solutions to difficulties of value education through English teaching in Chinese schools

It is the fundamental task of education in China to train talents with right values and professional skills. For this purpose, value education should be carried out in all fields of basic education, vocational education and higher education. Strengthening value education through subject teaching is an important carrier and concrete practice to implement the fundamental task of socialist ideological education. The organic integration of value education with subject teaching is conducive to promoting virtue cultivation in all kinds of subjects. Combining value education with the teaching of English in Chinese schools meets the practical needs of cultivating foreign language personnel with both virtue and talent in the new era. Teachers, teaching materials and pedagogy are the basic elements of curriculum implementation, and the key factors for high quality value education in English teaching.