Foreign Language Teaching Profession Research Articles

Indonesian EFL students’ perceptions of TikTok utilization in EFL learning

Despite its increasing popularity among young adults, TikTok has been very slow in finding its way into the English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching profession. Yet before introducing the application into the EFL classrooms, it is no doubt imperative to discern what is preferable among EFL learners. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which EFL learners perceive TikTok as facilitating their learning. To this end, the participants (N = 31) were asked to fill out a short, online questionnaire to gather information about (i) whether they utilized TikTok as an affordance for their EFL learning and (ii) whether they perceive its integration into the EFL classrooms as facilitative of their learning. The findings revealed that although they did not explicitly mention that they used TikTok as an affordance for their EFL learning, they held a belief that TikTok is effective in promoting their English proficiency. According to the students, there were three factors of note which contribute to the effectiveness of TikTok, namely abundant authentic input availability, easy-to-grasp information and availability of free tuition related to English language learning. Pedagogically, it implies that TikTok is worth integrating into the EFL classrooms.

Puzzle identification in action research in initial teacher education

ABSTRACT The identification of suitable topics in action research can be challenging due to the complex nature of the educational context and the diverse factors that influence problem identification processes. This qualitative multi-case study explores problem identification among pre-service teachers involved in action research (AR). Twenty-nine participants (pre-service teachers, university-based supervisors, and school mentors) from two South American (Colombia and Chile) initial Foreign Language Teacher Education programs were interviewed on problem identification origins and influential factors. The study also used document analysis of program curricula, course programs, syllabi, and standards for the foreign language teaching profession across contexts. Thematic analysis suggests that problem identification has both bottom-up and top-down sources, and it is influenced by the prescriptive and facilitative roles of mentors and supervisors, the pre-service teachers’ research competences, and a series of contextual factors. We discuss the results along with integrated data, point out several critical issues for action research in initial L2 teacher education and introduce a set of considerations to facilitate processes of problem identification.

Applying Positive Psychology to the L2 Classroom: Acknowledging and Fostering Emotions in L2 Writing.

The process of learning a new language can be filled with many emotions, both positive and negative, for the learner. This is particularly true in the area of writing, where students may feel a close connection to their sense of self. Thus far, the foreign language teaching profession has tended to prioritize cognition over emotion in research and classroom practice, with limited attention paid to the role of emotions in language learning. Recently, however, scholars, influenced by psychology, have taken a more active look at how emotions might mediate language learning. Among these scholars, Rebecca Oxford proposed a model that integrates tenets of positive psychology and second language learning, which she has designated as EMPATHICS. This nine-component model examines emotions/empathy, meaning/motivation, perseverance, agency/autonomy, time, hardiness/habits of mind, intelligences, characteristics, and self-factors. In this paper, we apply the EMPATHICS model to teaching second language writing and offer suggestions for task design at different stages of the writing process. While many second language teachers already incorporate some aspects of positive psychology in their classroom, becoming explicitly aware of its potential to foster better learning outcomes behooves us all.

Positive Psychology can help overcome the pernicious native speaker ideology

The world of applied linguistics and the profession of foreign language teaching needs to finally sweep away the notion of “Native Speaker” (NS) and the deficit perspective surrounding foreign language learners. We argue that Positive Psychology is a source of inspiration for a new and more positive perspective on foreign language learners and users. Rather than obsessing about negative aspects of life, Positive Psychologists defend a more holistic perspective. By transforming the view of learners as failed “NS” of the target language to that of increasingly competent and happy users of a foreign language would lift a huge burden from the shoulders of foreign language learners and their teachers alike. We argue that the unexpected longevity and ubiquity of the NS in the foreign language teaching profession are its deep historical roots in linguistics and culture, and that only a radical paradigm shift can dislodge it.

INTERNET ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR OF SOCIAL AND PERSONAL FORMATION OF A STUDENT

The article is aimed at analysis of the impact, made by the Internet on a person and the personal development in the multicultural educational environment. The professional foreign-language teaching, which implies students’ interaction with the informational Internet resources, forms the basis of the research. The Internet environment is considered as the factor of the social and personal development because of its educational influence on students and contribution to their professional upbringing, their Russian citizenship. Having analyzed the results of the opinion poll, we have revealed the areas, which are necessary to be researched in terms of the social behavior, based on the personal Russian civic participation in the Internet environment.

A Tale of Three Excellent Chinese EFL Teachers: Unpacking Teacher Professional Qualities for Their Sustainable Career Trajectories from an Ecological Perspective

Teachers’ quality has long been researched in the field of general education. However, little attention has been paid to the professional qualities of excellent English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in the context of English curriculum reform, especially from an ecological perspective. To address this gap, this study adopted a qualitative approach to characterise the qualities of excellent senior high school EFL teachers in China and the development of their professional qualities using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model. Four interconnected dimensions of excellent EFL teachers’ professional qualities were confirmed: English language pedagogical content competence, beliefs about the foreign language teaching profession and professional ethics, beliefs about foreign language teaching and learning, and beliefs about language teacher learning and development. Meanwhile, the EFL teachers constructed and developed their professional qualities in their dynamic interaction with the complex ecological systems where they lived. The paper considers these various teacher-related factors in the ecological systems and provides some suggestions for sustaining EFL teachers’ professional development.

Педагогические условия обучения профессиональному иностранному языку студентов направления подготовки «Агроинженерия» на основе модели интегрированного предметно-языкового обучения

Currently, content and language integrated learning is becoming more widespread in the teaching of agrarian university students. For university pedagogy, this is a fairly new and innovative approach aimed at achieving two goals at the same time: 1) the further development of students’ foreign language communicative competence; 2) the further development of professional competencies by means of a foreign language. The dual purpose testifies to the fact that with this approach, a foreign language is both the teaching goal and a mean of professional development of students. However, the effectiveness of the teaching methods will depend on the consideration of a number of pedagogical conditions. In this work we identify and substantiate six pedagogical conditions, the consideration of which, when developing the appropriate teaching methods, will contribute to the effectiveness of the process of professional foreign language teaching in an agrarian university students of the “Agricultural Engineering” programme. These conditions include: a) the selection of subject content of teaching is carried out on the basis of the implementation of intersubject communications reliance principle; b) in the learning process, problem speech tasks are used, as well as tasks that reflect the specifics of the students’ future professional activities; c) the minimum level of foreign language proficiency by students is B1-B2; d) grouping students by level of knowledge of a foreign language; e) grouping students according to their study profiles within the framework of the programme; f) the competence of the teacher in the field of foreign language, profile specialty and methods of teaching them. The work describes in detail each of the selected conditions.

Формирование профессиональной межкультурной иноязычной коммуникативной компетенции студентов направления подготовки «Агроинженерия» в условиях интегрированного предметно-языкового обучения

The work is devoted to determining the purpose of professional foreign language teaching to students of an agrarian university in the conditions of content and language integrated learning. Based on the study of the history of the issue of determining the purpose of foreign language teaching at different stages, it was concluded that the main result of teaching should be the development of students’ professional intercultural foreign language communicative competence. This type of competence in work is understood as the ability and willingness of agrarian university students to use a foreign language as a mean of professional communication with representatives of different countries and cultures, taking into account the specifics of intercultural interaction, as well as a mean of cognition and professional development. Structurally, intercultural professional foreign language communicative competence includes three blocks: professional, intercultural, and foreign language communicative. Foreign language communicative competence represents the ability and willingness of students to use a foreign language as a mean of communication, cognition and development. It will reflect the professional orientation of teaching and include linguistic, speech, sociocultural, strategic and educational-cognitive components. Intercultural competence represents the ability and willingness to interact with representatives of different countries and cultures, aimed at establishing professional intercultural contacts, resolving conflict situations in the field of intercultural communication, and achieving the goals of intercultural interaction. All these three blocks of professional intercultural foreign language communicative competence exist separately only for descriptive purposes and are in close interconnection with each other. We also consider professional foreign language communicative competence as a level category consisting of value-motivational, cognitive, communicative and reflective components. Each of the components is described in detail.

Разработка учебного курса профессионального иностранного языка в аграрном вузе на основе модели интегрированного предметно-языкового обучения

Content and language integrated learning is a new innovative approach to professional foreign language teaching in an agrarian university. Its distinctive feature is the dual purpose of teaching – the simultaneous teaching students a foreign language and a profile specialty. Developed on the basis of actualizing reliance on intersubject connections, the course of a professional foreign language is aimed at intraprofile specialization of students and the development of a number of general professional and professional competencies in them. At the same time, the full-fledged implementation of content and language integrated learning requires appropriate changes both in the planning of a professional foreign language course and in the development of educational materials new in content and orientation. In the work, we consider the definition and main provisions of content and language integrated learning, analyze the works devoted to the courses development for English for specific purposes, offer the author’s stages of course development of a professional foreign language based on the model of content and language integrated learning. These stages include: 1) an assessment of the students’ needs; 2) determination of the goals and objectives of the course; 3) determination of course topics or content and thematic modules; 4) determination of subtopics of each content and thematic module; 5) selection of foreign texts of a professional orientation; 6) the development of problem tasks of a foreign speech and professional orientation; 7) course assessment. The work describes in detail all the stages.

Формирование профессиональной иноязычной коммуникативной компетентности студентов в качестве цели обучения иностранному языку в аграрном вузе

In contemporary Federal State Education Standard of Higher Education in a number of agrarian university programmes, knowledge of a foreign language is presented in two competencies at once. At the same time, if earlier the goal of foreign language teaching at a university was the foreign language communicative competence development and all its subcompetencies in the social and socio-cultural spheres of communication, then modern Federal State Education Standard of Higher Education also focus on the communicative competence development in the professional sphere of communication. Such an expansion of the use of a foreign language as a means of communication has contributed to the designation of the professional foreign language communicative competency development as one of the main goals of professional foreign language teaching in an agrarian university. At the same time, scientists have not come to a consensus on the structure and component composition of professional foreign-language communicative competency. We consider the history of the issue on the example of progremme “Technology of production and processing of agricultural products”, the structure and component composition of the professional foreign language communicative competency of agrarian university student are proposed. Structurally, the professional foreign-language communicative competency of students includes two components: a foreign language communicative and professional. A foreign language communicative consists of five subcompetencies: linguistic, speech, sociocultural, compensatory and educational-cognitive. The professional component includes knowledge in a specific sphere of professional activity and professional activities of specialists in a specific programme. This component will largely determine the content of teaching components of a foreign language communicative competence, adding professionally oriented subject content to the learning process, reflecting the features of specialists in the sphere of agricultural production and processing technology. In addition, as a level category, professional foreign language communicative competence of students consists of five components: value-motivational, cognitive, operational, communicative, reflective. The work describes in detail the content of these components.

Perfectionist Types in the English as a Foreign Language Teaching Profession in Russia

This study examines perfectionism in the English language teaching profession in Russia. The aims are threefold: 1) to use latent profile analysis (LPA) to classify English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers into different types of perfectionists; 2) to compare different types of perfectionists using depression-anxiety-stress indicators (DASS); 3) to study the link between perfectionism and the perception of one’s professional teaching activity. We used convenience sampling by collecting data from 117 English teachers (5% males, 95% females; age range 20-64; M= 39; SD=12) with the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). LPA was conducted to determine the optimal number of types of individuals based on their SAPS profile. Three distinct classes of perfectionists were found (adaptive, maladaptive, non-perfectionists). 27% of the respondents fell into the category of maladaptive perfectionists with high scores on both the Standards and Discrepancy subscales. Teachers with higher Standards tend to be more aware of their perfectionism. Teachers who are less satisfied with their English proficiency tend to be more stressed at work. However, the results of the study did not indicate significant differences between the perfectionist types on anxiety, depression, and stress. The findings suggest the need to develop these scales further for measuring perfectionism in the teaching profession and in EFL teaching particularly.

PROFESSIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMPETENCE FOR SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATION INTO THE LABOUR MARKET

Good knowledge of a foreign language is an important factor contributing to the professional recognition and career prospects. In order to improve professional foreign language competence, the study of the situation in professional foreign language teaching and learning was carried out in three business sectors: logistics, transport, service industry. The survey was carried among three target groups: employers, foreign language teachers and students. Employers were asked to name language skills which employees need most to perform work, to express an opinion on the role of employers in the English language learning process as well as to identify topics, most common words, phrases, or specific professional terms which would be important for their employees to know. Students were asked about motivation and foreign language needs, training environment and teaching methods as well as about their learning styles. Foreign language teachers' questionnaires contained the evaluation of teaching process and methods used, lessons preparation and evaluation of learning. The study results show that foreign language competences are considered by employers as one of the most important for the employees. However, the level of language competences varies according to the position and role within the company. Based on the findings, suggestions and recommendations were developed for acquiring a professional foreign language in the three business sectors.

Authentic Assessment: Evaluating the Saudi EFL Tertiary Examination System

As early as 1983, Rossi propounded that one of the issues of particular interest and development within the foreign and second language teaching profession is that of proficiency testing or the evaluation of a learner's level of linguistic and communicative competence. This still holds true. On the contrary our pilot study using the Question Paper Evaluating Checklists (included in this paper) indicates that all is not right with the designing of EFL question papers in Saudi Arabia though EFL assessment patterns in the KSA have undergone much change from the time that English was first introduced into the curriculum as a compulsory foreign language. It is the demand of time that evaluation patterns be evaluated on the touchstone of latest research and their relationship with classroom practices be established. This will help the learner-teacher combine to plug the loopholes in language training. In other words, we have to realise as educators that good assessment forms the basis of a wealth of learner information that has direct and indirect ramifications on curriculum and pedagogy. Hence the need to study this aspect of EFL in the light of modern literatures in order come up with constructive recommendations.

Research on College English Teaching Creative Ability

Since the reform of college English teaching has been of great concern to start foreign language teaching profession. This article aims to explore new ways to improve college English teaching mode, describes the contents of University conducted experiments College English Teaching innovation, characteristics, comparison of the data through questionnaires and innovative way to explore the advantages of teaching mode, the college English teaching reform of improving students' comprehensive ability, large area to improve the quality of college English teaching has important practical value.

MOTIVATION AS A FACTOR OF INFLuENCE ON THE SuCCESS OF FOREIGN LANGuAGE TEACHING OF POSTGRAduATES IN MEdICAL SCHOOLS

The article is devoted to investigation of the motivation in learning a foreign language by postgrad- uates in the medical school. Motivation is regarded by the author as a factor of influence on the success of the professional foreign language teaching. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of experimental studies of postgraduate teaching issues such as: individual personality traits, the status in the group, positive or negative experience of learning a foreign language, etc. This article contains the material on the results of the postgraduate students’ survey on issues related to the objectives of learning a foreign language, its application possibilities in practical professional work and so on.

The foreign language teaching profession in Finnish and Japanese society: a sociocultural comparison

The social basis of a teaching profession is created through behavioural and cultural patterns, specific artefacts, and their connection to certain institutional practices. The purpose of this study is to discover the conditions that structure the teaching profession in a cultural context and to find out what it is to be a foreign language (FL) teacher in Finland and Japan. Both countries have high educational equality but with contrasting patterns of management policies that are manifested in their teacher education curricula. Educational policy documents as well as teacher interviews and classroom observations were conducted in both countries and the findings compared by one Japanese and three Finnish researchers. The research themes are as follows: the FL teaching profession, teacher education paradigms, teachers’ professional development, and pedagogical orientation in teaching. The results show that the cultural context and its strong implications for the teaching profession are prominent in both cultures.

IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ABOUT TEACHING CULTURE IN FL CLASSROOM

Abstract . Intercultural competence in the paradigm of intercultural communicative competence plays an important role in the present time of the Foreign Language Teaching profession. Intercultural skills (Sercu, 2004) of the intercultural speakers (Byram, M.2000), rather than the language skills of the language speakers is more prominent nowadays. This radical shift in the view of the language researchers and experts certainly affects language teachers’ role in promoting learners’ acquisition of intercultural skills and consequently, fostering their cultural dimension. The present study focuses on the role of teachers as mediators of both language and culture in foreign language classes. To collect the data, a questionnaire was distributed among 93 Iranian foreign language teachers of both genders from seven different provinces. They were asked to express their opinion regarding several aspects of including the culture element in foreign language teaching. To analyze the data, frequencies are computed, chi square is obtained and finally the r formula for some of the answers is used. Completing the questionnaire, teachers express their opinion about culture and language teaching. The participants also explain the extent to which they are interested in interculturalizing the foreign language teaching and the conditions and circumstances they think to be important doing that. The findings suggest that teacher training programs should pay more attention to training the language teachers in intercultural skills as well as intercultural competence. The curriculum developers should also include more cultural points and information in the material the teachers are using and keep them updated. Though some of teachers in our study believed that interculturalizing the foreign language teaching is important, they were more linguistic-oriented and did not regard intercultural skills and knowledge as necessary, hence their failure in practically integrating language and culture in their classrooms.

Специфика и перспективы применения технологии блочно-модульного обучения в контексте профессионально ориентированной подготовки по иностранному языку в вузе (на примере создания вторичных текстов)

Специфика и перспективы применения технологии блочно-модульного обучения в контексте профессионально ориентированной подготовки по иностранному языку в вузе (на примере создания вторичных текстов)

The Professional Development of the Foreign Language Teachers and the Professional Foreign Language Teaching Practice

Foreign language teaching practice plays an important role in developing the foreign language students’ professional thinking of and improving their teaching ability in the normal university. In the gradual process of the foreign language teachers’ professional advancement, the traditional concepts and the approaches of the teaching practice have failed to meet the standard of foreign language teacher training in the new era. Therefore, it is imminent to construct the professional foreign language teaching practice. In this paper, from the perspectives of the foreign language teachers’ professional status, the connotation of the professional development and the structure of professional quality, the author rethinks the problems and the tasks in foreign language teaching practice and puts forward the new orientation and conception.

The Development of Multiple Skills for the Foreign Language Teacher of the XXIst Century – Current Training Needs

If speaking today about the skills in the foreign languages field is an absolutely logical approach and without a need of additional justifications, the matter of their classification from the teaching and/or psychological point of view certainly remains open. The teacher's proficiency profile and the occupational standards which define the teaching career are in the centre of European debates on education topics in the last years, a significant attention being paid to all the challenges that decision makers face all the time: the elaboration of some attractive and incentivising initial training patterns adjusted to the current requirements, awareness of the teacher's role as co- ordinator and active factor of the educational process, identification of the best measures to facilitate the access into the profession, establishment of a set of skills which should properly meet the education quality criteria, increase of the conceptual coherence between the initial and the in-service training and, last but not least, the creation of some fair work conditions (financially and not only). The foreign language teaching profession is currently faced with increasing enrolments and a shortage of qualified teachers. At the same time, a rapidly changing student population, nationwide education reform and the development of national standards for foreign language learning are placing a number of new demands on foreign language teachers. Curtain and Pesola [1] suggest that foreign language teachers today “require a combination of competencies and background that may be unprecedented in the preparation of language teachers” and that strong professional development is critical. The present paperwork intends to briefly examine the competency profile of the modern language teacher of the XXIst century in Europe, with emphasis on his general needs of initial and in-service training, which are responsible for the shaping of a creative space for the study of foreign languages and of a “rejuvenated” portrait of the nowadays’ linguistic educator.