Foreign Language Teaching Programs Research Articles

Interaction with Artificial Intelligence as a Potential of Foreign Language Teaching Program in Graduate School

Interaction with Artificial Intelligence as a Potential of Foreign Language Teaching Program in Graduate School

Aligned ICTs to the CEFR in the Cuban foreign language teaching program.

This study examines integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs) into foreign language teacher preparation aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) standards at a Cuban university. A mixed methods approach combined surveys, interviews, assessments and observations to evaluate effects on trainees’ communicative competence development, interpreting uneven gains across reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities. Questionnaire and assessment analysis evidenced perceived and actual progress towards CEFR alignment among fifth year versus first year students resulting from sustained ICT incorporation over their progression. However variability disadvantages persisted in some competencies. Qualitative insights emphasized technology’s enablement of contextualized practice and real-world application as instrumental for competence growth. Despite affirmative outcomes overall, optimizing consistency by motivation and engagement-focused implementations is recommended. Intensive, systematic ICT integration shows potential for helping future foreign language teachers attain key standards-based competencies. Findings inform initial teacher training advancement in Cuba and beyond.

Digital Literacy as a Meta-Cognitive Component of Younger Students’ Intellectual and Creative Potential in Foreign Language Lessons

The article reflects on the results of the digital literacy study in the structure of the meta-cognitive component of the intellectual and creative potential of younger schoolchildren in foreign language lessons. The team of authors substantiates the relevance of approaches to understanding digital literacy as an element of meta-cognitive skills and its increasing role in the development of language education in modern conditions of electronic information society. The scientific and analytical baggage of scientific and pedagogical research of Kazakhstani and foreign authors made it possible to identify the features of universality and meta-subjectivity inherent in the psychological and pedagogical phenomenon of digital literacy. Hypothesis: self-mastery of a foreign language in the modern information and communication space acquires the features of meta-subjects under the influence of digital literacy of students. The revealed similarity of skills and knowledge of speech-thinking activity and digital literacy as metacognitive categories and aspects of meta-knowledge form the intellectual and creative potential of a student’s personality. The results of the study prove that digital literacy as an element of the meta-cognitive component of the intellectual and creative potential of students has an intensifying effect on the development of speech-thinking skills in younger schoolchildren. The results obtained are based on experimental data confirming that the integration of techniques, methods, and means for the development of digital literacy acts as an intensifier of speech-thinking processes, increasing the effectiveness of teaching a foreign language in primary school. Among the defiantly difficult is the task set by the author’s team: to create a universal psychological and pedagogical algorithm to improve the meta-cognitive component of the intellectual and creative potential of a younger student with the actualization of the methodology of digital literacy in the humanities of the language cycle (state languages, literature, foreign languages, social studies, history, etc.). The training sample consisted of data obtained in the course of ascertaining and modeling experiments from real texts written by schoolchildren. Each text was checked and marked up by two experts in accordance with the levels of psychological, pedagogical, and subject competencies, which made it possible to determine the dynamics of digital literacy of younger schoolchildren in the structure of metacognitive activity of students learning foreign languages, which makes it possible to verify it as the core of the intellectual and creative potential of the student. The authors believe that the digital literacy of a modern student is a “soft power” of a new type of linguodidactics since it allows reformatting the speech and behavioral value matrix of the younger generation under the influence of the translation of priority standards of behavior in a particular ethnic society. Digital literacy is an unconditional way to expand the possibilities of developing an individual system of metacognition, determining the significant potential of its integration with the content of the foreign language teaching program in elementary grades.

Yabancı Dil Olarak Türkçenin Öğretiminde Kullanılan Ders Kitaplarındaki Ölçme Uygulamalarının Sözlü Üretim ve Sözlü Etkileşim Becerileri Kazanımlarına Göre İncelenmesi

The main purpose of this study is to reveal to what extent the measurement practices prepared for verbal production and interaction skills in the “Altay I am Learning Turkish A1 book” overlap with the acquisitions of the in the Ministry of National Education Turkish Teaching as a Foreign Language Program (2020). The speaking skill, which is part of the narrative skills among the fundamental language skills, is divided into two categories in the book: oral production and oral interaction skills. In the Ministry of National Education (2020), the speaking skill is addressed under two subheadings as oral production and oral interaction skills. In this research, the achievements in the Turkish as a Foreign Language Teaching Program, which were prepared in accordance with the modern language teaching approach in collaboration between the Ministry of National Education and Maarif Foundation in 2020, are considered as the benchmark. The research is qualitative and descriptive in nature. The measurement applications for oral production and oral interaction in the Altay Turkish I'm Learning A1 book were examined and interpreted using the document analysis technique. According to the results obtained from the research findings, it is observed that the measurement applications in the book align closely with the achievements of the Ministry of National Education Turkish as a Foreign Language Teaching Program.

Comparative Analysis of Turkish as a Foreign Language Teaching Programs Prepared by Maarif Foundation and Ankara University TÖMER

Araştırmada Ankara Üniversitesi TÖMER ile Maarif Vakfı tarafından hazırlanan Yabancı Dil Olarak Türkçe Öğretimi Programları incelenerek programların kazanım yönünden benzer ve farklı yönleri üzerinde durulmuştur. Nitel araştırma desenlerinden doküman incelemesinin kullanıldığı araştırmada Ankara TÖMER tarafından hazırlanan programdaki 316 kazanımın 69’unun dinleme becerisi, 45’inin sözlü anlatım becerisi, 54’ünün karşılıklı konuşma becerisi, 90’ının okuma anlama becerisi, 58’inin yazılı anlatım becerisiyle; Maarif Vakfı’nca hazırlanan programdaki 1315 kazanımın 264’ünün dinleme/izleme becerisi, 210’unun sözlü etkileşim becerisi, 222’sinin sözlü üretim becerisi, 302’sinin okuma becerisi, 317’sinin yazma becerisiyle ilişkilendirildiği görülmüştür. Kazanımlardaki en fazla ortaklığın dinlemeyle ilgili olduğu, dinlemeyi takiben sırasıyla sözlü etkileşim ve sözlü üretim, okuma ve yazmanın takip ettiği; iki programda toplamda 61 kazanımın ortak olduğu görülmüştür. Dinleme özelindeki ortak kazanımların yönerge ve yönlendirmelere uyma, soru ifadelerini kullanma, günlük yaşamla ilgili becerileri geliştirme, söz varlığını zenginleştirme, farklı ortamlarda sunulan içerikleri takip etme becerileri; sözlü anlatım ve karşılıklı konuşma ile sözlü etkileşim ve sözlü üretimle ilgili ortak kazanımların kalıp ifadeleri kullanma, kendini ifade etme, farklı içeriklerde konuşmalar hazırlama becerileri; okumayla ilgili ortak kazanımların medya iletilerini okuma, farklı metin türleri ile aktarılan bilgileri anlama, günlük yaşamı kolaylaştırmaya dönük iletileri kavrama becerileri; yazmayla ilgili ortak kazanımların duygu ve düşünceleri aktarma, farklı içeriklerde metin hazırlama üzerine olduğu anlaşılmıştır.

An Evaluation of Academic Writing Course Materials Used for International Students From the Perspectives of Students and Teachers

An indispensable part of the success of a foreign language teaching program is the course material evaluation process. Therefore, it is thought that examining whether the teaching materials and practices used to improve the academic skills of international students meet the needs of students and teachers will contribute to the literature. In this study, which was planned as a case study for this purpose, the course materials and teaching practices used for teaching academic writing to international students at four state universities were evaluated by investigating students’ and teachers’ views. In the research, a materials evaluation questionnaire and semi-structured interview forms were used as data collection tools. Based on the literature, a questionnaire was adapted and the quantitative data were collected through this questionnaire. As for the qualitative data collection, focus group interviews were conducted with teachers and students. Analyzing the data received, the suitability of the materials and applications used in the education environment was examined and suggestions have been put forward for designing more effective materials and curriculum.

A comparison of Ankara University (TÖMER) and Turkey Maarif Foundation Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language Programs in terms of skill areas, objectives, and assessment practices

The curriculum constitutes the backbone of a teaching process as a guide that defines and limits. It directs an education process in terms of approach, target, time, scope, stage, evaluation, and outputs. A well-structured curriculum is a must-have requirement for an educational process in which desired outcomes are targeted. In this study, the Turkish as foreign language teaching programs of the Maarif Foundation, which is claimed to be the product of a long-term study and large-scale research in 2019, and Ankara University TÖMER, which was put into effect in 2015, were compared in terms of purpose, skill, acquisition, and assessment-evaluation. The basics of qualitative research design carried out the research. The data of the research were analyzed by the document analysis method. According to the results of the research, it has been determined that there are significant differences between the two programs in terms of their purpose, objective, target audience, and scope.

Bilingvalno obrazovanje i vaspitanje na školskom i predškolskom nivou u Srbiji i u svetu

This paper, first of all, gives an overview of theoretical-pedagogical and other assumptions on teaching in school and preschool bilingual education. It gives an overview of some of the currently applied didactic-methodological, curricular and other solutions of this kind in countries where the practice of bilingual education has recently come to life, includ- ing Serbia, where it is practiced today in numerous state or private kindergartens and schools, especially in larger towns, i.e. in environments where it is easier to find educators who speak foreign languages. Some important requirements for educators and teachers regarding their language competencies that qualify them for educational work in one of the foreign languages are considered, such as competence in both certain subject and the foreign language in which it will be taught, the skill in terms of cooperation between the subject teacher and foreign lan- guage teacher, etc. Also, empirical indicators on the efficiency of bilingual teaching in foreign and domestic practice are discussed, such as research projects on the effectiveness of bilingual teaching in the world that have been aimed at determining how much it has contributed to the level of development of student competencies, with most of such research being conducted in Canada, Finland and Germany. Some of the benefits of bilingual education include better results of bilingual students when compared to non-bilingual peers in all language skills (speaking, lis- tening, reading and writing in English, French and German), higher motivation levels, a richer lexical fund, more skills of knowledge transfer, language spontaneity, intercultural awareness, cognitive flexibility and creativity, etc. However, it has been concluded that, given that there are not many dilemmas of a scientific-theoretical nature regarding the earlier inclusion of preschool children and students in various forms of institutional bilingual education, it is unsustainable that bilingual education is still an educational novelty in Serbia, and that, judging by the insignificant number of preschool institutions and schools in Serbia committed to bilingual education, this problem is still not given enough attention. Therefore, it would be useful, at least at the optional level, to offer university students foreign language teaching programs that would functionally train them for this type of teaching.

Internet Plus University and College Foreign Language Teaching Reform

The “Internet Plus” on-line plateforms provide many innovative approach to learning; but providing convenient college education on-line also poses many new challenges that have not been explored. Some of these educational challenges are explored in the development of an innovative foreign language teaching program in China Universities. Foreign language education networks can be designed on “Internet Plus” platforms to enhance teachers' teaching capabilities. Using "Internet Plus" plateforms is key to foreign language teaching reform in colleges and universities.

A Systematic Review of Program Evaluation Studies in EFL: The Turkish Case

English language education has been provided at all levels of education for a long time in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world. In order to assess the objectives, content, expected target outputs, effectiveness or weakness of the language education given, program evaluation studies are carried out. In this study, a systematic review study was conducted in order to determine English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching program evaluation studies in Turkey published between 2017-2020, and to investigate the levels of these studies, research patterns and focus of the published articles. For systematic review, ERIC and Google Scholar databases were searched and the key words such as "program evaluation, EFL, Turkey" were used. When the results are examined, a total of 23 studies were found between the mentioned years, and most of the studies were conducted on university programs, and the majority of them were conducted as qualitative research. Based on the results, it was revealed that the program evaluation studies were not evenly distributed equally in terms of education level, and it was understood that the subfields of the program were studied rather than the general content. This undesired state revealed the need for more research on the general program content and lower education levels in program evaluation studies.

DEVELOPMENT OF VERBAL CREATIVITY BY BILINGUAL AND ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN KINDERGARTEN TO 8TH GRADE SCHOOLS

Bilingualism has long been within the scope of creativity studies that investigate creativity and problem solving. This study aims to explore the possible effect of bilingualism on the verbal creativity of English language learners. Participants from a bilingual and an English as foreign language teaching program within the same school were selected as an experimental and a control group respectively to compare verbal creativity. A series of creative English writing tasks designed by the authors were assigned to a total of 86 third grade (aged 7–8) students. Both the English as foreign language group (N = 42) and the bilingual group (N = 44) were subject to assessment and evaluation in terms of verbal creativity. The two cohorts completed the same creative writing tasks that were then assessed by a board of five English teachers from the same school who were trained by the authors to assess verbal creativity using a Student Product Assessment Form. An independent samples Student’s t-test was conducted and descriptive statistics of both cohorts for 9 of the assessment form were analyzed. The results showed that the students on the bilingual program outperformed those on the English as foreign language program in terms of verbal creativity. The study offers implications for English language teaching in primary schools with reference to developing creative verbal language skills at early ages.

The Effect of Post-teaching Techniques on the English Vocabulary Recall and Retention of Iranian Students with Learning Disability

One of the most important needs in learning a second or foreign language is vocabulary acquisition. Certainly, failure to keep vocabulary in mind is a problem for both typically-developing learners as well as those with a learning disability (LD). This language demand requires teachers to use techniques in order to reinforce vocabulary recall. The current study is an attempt to investigate the effect of two post-teaching vocabulary learning techniques of diglot-weave and cooperative learning on vocabulary knowledge of LD students and to compare them with the common instruction of picture-word definition. To this end, 90 Iranian female LD students from 10 intact classes in two Junior Exceptional Schools in Shiraz were randomly assigned to one of the three groups. After the intensive teaching sessions, the test was administered to examine their vocabulary recall performance in each group and after a two-week interval, the same test was used to examine their vocabulary retention. The results by conducting the one-way ANOVA indicated that both experimental groups of diglot-weave and cooperative learning techniques outperformed the control group of picture-definition in the vocabulary recall and retention tests. However, there was no significant difference between the performance of diglot-weave and cooperative learning groups. Therefore, the findings of the present study could provide useful implications for foreign language teaching programs particularly in Special Education and students with LD.

TEACHING ENGLISH BY MEANS OF THEATRICALIZED ACTIVITIES

The problem of finding effective methods of teaching foreign languages, focused on quick and easy assimilation of language material, its activation in the process of communication in various life situations, is the subject of numerous pedagogical discourse. A modern teacher is a mentor of the educational process, and is able to use a wide methodological and technological pedagogical toolkit. Among the most important problems of modern linguodidactics is the weak motivation of students to learn a foreign language in the absence of a linguistic environment. Therefore, the main task of organizing the educational process in teaching a foreign language is to develop students' interest in the language. The article focuses on the authors' practical experience on the use of theater technologies in additional language education and presents a tested foreign language teaching program. The research problem: what is the role of theatrical activities in teaching English? The purpose of the research is to substantiate the potential of theatrical activity in teaching English. The research methods used are observation, generalization, analysis. The research results: the influence of the means of theatrical activity on the process of teaching English to schoolchildren has been described; the understanding of theatricalization as an interactive educational technology in the English classroom has been presented; the experience of using elements of theater in extracurricular activities for the study of the English language have been described; the arguments of theatrical activity as an effective means of teaching a foreign language have been substantiated. Key findings: the means of theatrical activity include the following theatrical techniques: roleplay when reading foreign texts, a theatrical story about a character / historical personality, a scene, sketches, games, etc. Theatrical technologies complement the traditional form of the classroom, contributing to the development of open dialogical communication, the emotional component, broadening the horizons of students, which makes it possible to expand the range of opportunities for teaching a foreign language.

Деякі методичні питання навчання граматики української мови на початковому етапі

The article deals with problems of the formation of grammatical competence as an important component of foreign language communicative competence, the theoretical principles and foundations that are relevant for the Ukrainian as a foreign language teaching methods at the advanced stage of training have been analyzed. The article concerns the aspect of Grammar as an important part of any language which ensures the formation of oral and written communication skills. The study of the issue which is discussed in the article is relevant, since the formation of grammatical skills is one of the prerequisites for developing the ability to express their thoughts in oral and written forms, as well as the ability to understand the views expressed by other people, which is important for the communication process. Grammar is the part of the content of Ukrainian as a foreign language teaching program, therefore its role is seen in the aspect of learning activities, since grammar should contribute to the formation and development of speech skills, to play a supporting role for grammar rules and structures to serve communicative learning purposes. The grammar skills formation in foreign language learners is one of the most important components of speaking, listening, reading and writing teaching process. Studying grammar material it is necessary to form grammar skills for oral speech, which provide grammatically correct structure of dialogue and monologue speech. The need to study grammar in practical use is emphasized. The main purpose of teaching grammar as seen by the communicative method is the formation of communicative competence meaning student’s ability to act in accordance with a variety of life situations. It is a sine qua non condition that the exercises should be of interest and lead to the formation of free speech. That can promote successful communication.

Upon the Plausibility of Teaching English to Toddlers and the Need of Global Skills Development in Foreign Language Teaching Programs

The article explores the topic of ELT to toddlers and possibilities to develop language skills among the youngest cohort in Banská Bystrica region, Slovakia, which has got a long tradition of being a training hub for future language teachers, located at the Matej Bel University. The primary goal is to explore the potential of foreign language classes to become an experimental laboratory for global skills´ development through the medium of trainee teachers facilitating their learners with early contact with other languages(s) through the medium of being exposed to linguistic and cultural diversity. Following a set of observations, self-reflections and semi-structured interviews, we have outlined a sample of activities which are deemed beneficial to toddler´s personal development. The inspiration comes from our own teaching experience in selected community centre located in Banská Bystrica region. Given the fact that globalization took hold of our lives on a global scale, we have tried to make a list of recommendations suited not only to future English language teachers but also to other foreign languages´ future teachers within the Faculty of Arts. It is our overall aim in the Department of English and American Studies to train candidates for teaching jobs in global skills including critical thinking, creativity, cooperation, communication, digital skills, etc. so that they can disseminate them further among their pupils at pre-primary, primary and secondary level. In the individual chapters we deal with the most significant reproductive and productive, all-inclusive activities practiced during our teaching English to a group of toddlers for more than a year (2019) with the ambition to serve as guidelines to university students and to point out to the fact that global skills enhancement among future teachers should play an inevitable role in any foreign language teaching program.

The Development of a Scale to Evaluate Foreign Language Skills at Preparatory Schools

The aim of the present study is to develop a valid and reliable scale evaluating the effectiveness of language preparatory programs in the acquisition of language skills. In the development of Foreign Language Skills Scale (FLSS) in this study, research sample consisted of 326 preparatory school students for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and 350 preparatory school students for the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Based on the data obtained from the first sample, an EFA was carried out on the FLSS. EFA has identified that 27 items of the scale have factor loads between 0.519 and 0.729, while they explain 65.376% of the total variance and are distributed under five factors. These factors are named as writing skill, speaking skill, listening skill, core skills, and reading skill. A CFA was applied on the data obtained from the second sample that consisted of 350 students. As a result of the CFA, it was confirmed that the FLSS consisted of 27 items and five factors. For all the items in the scale, item-subscale, item-test correlation coefficients and mean differences between the upper and the lower 27% of the participants were calculated, and it is determined that each item is consistent with not only the subscale it is under but also the whole test. In addition, the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients of the total scale’s and five sub-scales’ internal consistency is quite high. The FLSS is expected to offer a comprehensive evaluation of the acquisition of four language skills in foreign language teaching programs.

Opinions of the Students from Foreign Language Teaching Departments about their Undergraduate Programs

<p style="text-align:justify">The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the undergraduate programs implemented in different Foreign Language Departments on the basis of the pre-service teachers’ opinions by using the “Context-Input-Process-Product (CIPP)” model. The current research was conducted on 40 pre-service teachers from the German, Arabic, French, and English Language Teaching Departments of the Gazi Education Faculty of Gazi University in the city of Ankara in Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year. The study was designed according to the qualitative research model. In this regard, the study employed the phenomenological method. As the data collection tool, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers was used. In the analysis of the collected data, the descriptive analysis method was used. In the study, the context, input, process and product dimensions of foreign language teacher training programs were evaluated on the basis of student opinions. According to the results, the participants found the program sufficient in terms of reading, writing and listening skills but inadequate in terms of speaking skill. It seems that the participating students think that the foreign language teaching programs generally meet their needs but do not adequately meet their need for developing their speaking skill. It can be suggested that the class hours devoted to the development of the speaking skill should be increased. Arrangements such as using computer-based programs and increasing speaking lessons can be made for students to improve their speaking skill.</p>

The Role of The Teacher in Building Intercultural Communication Skills in Foreign Language Teaching: Teachers’ Views with Examples from France and Turkey

Globalization and communication technologies are making intercultural communication necessary in international platform. Individuals need some skills to communicate effectively. Current foreign language teaching programs need to be prepared with the practices aimed at building intercultural communication skills. As in every educational process, the teacher is the most responsible person in teaching these skills. To identify and compare views of foreign language teachers on the teacher's role in building intercultural communication skills in foreign language teaching, and to collect data, twenty teachers from two universities of France and Turkey were asked to complete an open-ended questionnaire and followed one by one interview. The ethnic and cultural diversity enabled us to make comparisons among different perspectives. The analysis revealed that all participants developed awareness about importance of intercultural communication, yet experienced difficulties in planning intercultural activities and covering them in actual lessons. It was revealed that none of the participants had received any special training on intercultural communication. Some different views of participants that emerged, as a result of this study, are attributed to their cultural codes.

From Therapy to Instruction: The Effect of Systemic Strategies on the Oral Performance of Foreign Language Learners

This paper reports the results of a group intervention based on strategies derived from the systemic therapy model—brief strategic therapy. These strategies aimed at decreasing the anxiety levels commonly found in oral performance tasks related to L2 learning. Thirteen students from different semesters who belonged to two foreign language teaching programs participated in four weekly 40-minute group sessions. The pre- and post-assessments suggest a meaningful reduction of anxiety levels (t = 8.978 p < 0.05; ES = 2.49). The results suggest that the application of the strategies is highly effective and beneficial for anxious L2 learners.

Intercultural Sensitivity Levels of Turkish Pre-Service Foreign Language Teachers: Examples from Education Faculties of Two Universities in Turkey.

The aim of this study is to determine whether intercultural sensitivity levels vary among foreign language teacher candidates in terms of variables such as target language, year of study (grade), and gender in both intra and inters programs. Research sample consists of 1,049 Turkish freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior foreign language teacher candidates who are studying German, English and French Languages at two universities during the spring semester of 2015 to 2016 academic year. The research employs survey model, a quantitative research method which uses a positivist paradigm. Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) was used as data collection tool. All research data were subjected to inferential analysis via Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H, Friedman Tests, and Kendall’s tau_b correlation analysis in terms of participant related and environmental variables. Research findings revealed that inclusion of intercultural approach into foreign language teaching programs equipped Turkish foreign language teacher candidates with high level intercultural sensitivity. In this regard, it is of paramount significance to incorporate intercultural approach into the curricula of education faculties in order to have future foreign language teachers who can serve as intercultural models, negotiators, and mediators. Based on the need to reform general qualifications of teaching profession in accordance with contemporary requirements, the roles of intercultural model, negotiator, and mediator should also be added as part of the approach into the current conceptual framework of professional qualifications for foreign language teachers which is in a restructuring process. Key words: Foreign language teacher competence, intercultural communication skill, intercultural attitudes, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural mediator.