Foreign Language Teaching Programs Research Articles

A Comparative Study Of The Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, And Readiness Of American Versus Turkish Language Teachers

Contrasting studies of foreign language teacher education have become a growing interest among educationists and researchers in different countries (Yoder, 1992; McKay & Montgomery, 1995; Baker & Giacchino-Baker, 2000; Stachowski & Sparks, 2007; Firmin, M. W., Firmin, R & MacKay, F. M., 2008; LaFond & Dogancay-Aktuna, 2009; Ozek, 2009). Such studies emphasize the importance of comparing and understanding different education programs and enables student teachers to think more globally with respect to their language career. These contrasting studies investigate different aspects of foreign language (FL) teaching programs. The present study reports a comparison of the student teachers of an American and Turkish university regarding their satisfaction and readiness in language teaching, and their attitudes towards language teaching theories and teacher education program. The study aims to discover the teacher trainees’ perceptions with an in-depth understanding and compare the differences among them. Therefore, the researcher employed an interconnection of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires and interviews. The results indicated that there were some significant differences between the subjects in two groups regarding their readiness, their attitudes towards their education programs and their self-perceptions as teacher candidates.

New Development of T&I Education in China

~ ~ ~ Translator and interpreter (T&I) studies flourished in the past decade in China's higher education, both at the postgraduate level and at the undergraduate level. The fast development was mainly driven by the following external and internal factors. Compared with more well-established disciplines, T&I studies is still at its fledgling stage in China's higher education. There are a lot to be done in terms of promoting best practices of teaching, combining classroom training with more real-world professional practices, teacher training, application of new technologies and research input. Traditional foreign language teaching programs have fallen short of the societal demand for professional language service and new ways of teaching and learning foreign languages to make such efforts more effective and applicable must be encouraged. Introducing T&I studies at the undergraduate level represents such a move in the right direction. Moreover, T&I training opens up the possibility of making the teaching and learning activities more content-rich and more relevant to what people are most concerned about in contemporary society. To make the teaching effective and yielding the expected learning outcomes, a well-balanced curriculum needs to be put in place, combining liberal education, English language enhancement and core courses for translation and interpreting studies including the knowledge and skills for carrying out translation and interpreting assignments. Like any other scientific discipline, constant research input is needed for the healthy development of T&I studies. To make the T&I program successful, one needs to strike a balance between practice and research.

Beliefs, Attitudes, and Reflections of EFL Pre-service Teachers when Exploring Critical Literacy Theories to Prepare and Implement Critical Lessons.

<p>Foreign language teaching and learning is an issue of high relevance nowadays in Colombia. Unfortunately, language teaching has often been reduced to the mastery of language structures, disregarding the vast number of possibilities that language teaching provides to involve students in the discussion and analysis of issues that affect their everyday life. Shifting language teaching toward this goal, however, has to start in language teacher preparation programs. To gain a better understanding of the implication of this shift, this study explored the beliefs, attitudes, and reflections of three student-teachers, from a foreign language teaching program at a public university, towards the exploration of critical literacy theories, and the design and implementation of critical lessons. Data collected included audio-recordings of group discussions and individual interviews with the three participants, their reflections in different stages, lesson plans, and class observations of their lesson implementation. Results from this study suggest that exposing future EFL teachers to critical literacy approaches to language teaching can have different effects on their perspectives towards education and their teaching practice. Thus, their beliefs and attitudes towards Critical Literacy Theories can be continuously transformed as they face various situations in the exploration and implementation of these theories.</p><p>Key words: <em>pre-service EFL teachers, Critical Literacies, Language teacher preparation programs, Teaching practicum.</em></p>

The Status of Arabic in the United States of America post 9/11 and the Impact on Foreign Language Teaching Programs

This study aims at investigating the status of Arabic in the United States of America in the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center events. It delves into this topic and identifies the main reasons for the increased demand for learning Arabic. It also determines the impact of the renewed interest in Arabic on foreign language teaching programs. Furthermore, the study identifies the main Arabic language programs established in the U.S. after the events of 9/11, 2001 at various institutions of higher education. The process of data collection relied primarily on information and statistics provided by several authorized professional linguistic organizations based in the U.S. as well as a number of telephone interviews conducted by the researcher. Since September 11, 2001, Arabic language teaching and learning has become the focus of much more attention from the educational community in the United States. The study revealed that Arabic is the fastest-growing foreign language taught at U.S. colleges and universities ranking tenth among all other foreign languages during the last decade. Major reasons for the high demand for Arabic including political, family, and linguistic reasons are also discussed. Finally, the impact of this demand on Arabic teaching programs is explained providing a comprehensive list of higher educational institutions that teach Arabic in the United States today.

Обучение иностранному языку студентов инженерных специальностей на основе реализации контекстного подхода

This article presents a model of foreign language professionally-oriented training of future engineers, and the creation of the new foreign language teaching programs is justified. The author determines the content of the main methods and forms of teaching foreign languages. It is proved that the proposed educational technology, which implements the context approach to teaching students of technical institutes, joins together all the components of the training content, explaining the advisability of forming skills and contributes to the quality of language training of future engineers, as well as the acquisition of the real experience in professional activity.

AN INVESTIGATION OF INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Over the past three decades, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has become one of the most dominant approaches in the field of ESL or EFL teaching in many countries around the world, including Indonesia. The aims of this study were threefold: (a) to investigate Indonesian EFL teachers’ theoretical perceptions of CLT, (b) to look at whether the teachers have implemented CLT in the classroom, and (c) to identify difficulties the teachers face in implementing CLT. The participants in the study were 7 Indonesian EFL teachers who were pursuing their study in TESOL and Foreign Language Teaching program at the University of Canberra. Thirty-item questionnaires were used for data collection. The results of the study revealed that the teachers involved in this study generally had considerably good understanding of principles and activities of CLT. Most of the teachers also reported thatthey have implemented CLT in their classrooms even though many of them still maintained activities of traditional approaches. The results also revealed that all of the teachers face some constraints in implementing CLT activities in their classrooms. Among the most common constraints include low English proficiency of the students, large classrooms, and lack of sources.

Integrating cross-cultural interaction through video-communication and virtual worlds in foreign language teaching programs: is there an added value?

AbstractOrganizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language curricula is not an easy endeavour (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Guth & Helm, 2010), as pedagogical, organizational and technical issues have to be addressed before cross-cultural interaction sessions can be carried out (O'Dowd & Ritter, 2006; O'Dowd, 2011). These issues make many teaching practitioners reluctant to try to integrate telecollaboration in their teaching, as they are more aware of the burden such initiatives might impose than of the benefits they might have for language learners.Within the European project NIFLAR1we have tried to study the added value that integrating synchronous collaboration projects through video-web communication orSecond Lifemight have in language learning. The study presented in this paper measures the oral communicative growth of language students, who were allocated at random to one of three research conditions: (1) the VC experimental group carried out interactions with native peers through video-web communication; (2) the SL experimental group carried out the same tasks with native peers inSecond Lifeand (3) the control group performed the tasks face to face with classroom peers and had no opportunity to interact with native experts. Communicative growth was measured by comparing oral pre- and post-tests across conditions. Results show significant differences, the experimental groups outperforming the control group.

少数民族外语教学：蒙古语授课英语教学研究

本文里阐述了蒙古族教育背景，蒙古语授课英语教学的现实意义，分析了蒙古族外语教学的基本情况及存在的问题，探讨了开展蒙古语授课英语教学的必要性和可行性。并提出了今后开展蒙古语授课英语教学的具体措施和改进办法。笔者认为开展蒙古语授课英语教学，符合民族地区母语教学规律和授课学生的实际需要，十分有利于蒙古族教育体系的完善和民族地区社会经济文化的发展，也是民族地区高等院校外语教学的一项创新性改革措施。 In this paper, author gives a brief introduction of the educational background of Mongolian nationality, analyses the basic situation and existing problems in the foreign language education of Mongolian nationality, summarizes the practical significance, necessity and feasibility, and proposed specific improving measures. The author thinks that teaching English in Mongolian is very fit for regularity of mother tongue teaching and actual needs of the students in minority areas, and is also very conductive to the improvement of Mongolian national education system and development of society and economy, which is an innovative reform to the foreign language teaching programs in universities of minority areas.

Integrating cross-cultural interaction through videocommunication and virtual worlds in foreign language teaching programs: burden or added value?

Organizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language curricula is not an easy endeavour (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Guth & Helm, 2010), as pedagogical, organizational and technical issues have to be addressed before cross-cultural interaction sessions can be carried out (O’Dowd & Ritter, 2006). These issues make many teaching practitioners reluctant to try to integrate telecollaboration in their teaching, as they are more aware of the burden such initiatives might impose than of the benefits they might have for language learners. Within the European NIFLAR project we attempted to address the question under which circumstances and for what purposes integrating synchronous collaboration projects through video-communication or Second Life in language teaching might have an added value in language learning, taking organizational and technical issues into account. In order to answer this question different sources of data were gathered and analysed: questionnaires and interviews, oral pre- and post-tests and recordings of interaction sessions. Results show that telecollaboration experiences have an added value on cultural, linguistic, interpersonal and motivational issues.

A Debate on Literature as a Teaching Material in FLT

Teaching materials play an important role in most foreign language teaching programs. The number of studies on this subject bears ample testimony to the significance given by scholars in this regard. This article is a review on some reasons that scholars propose for the use of literature as a language teaching material in foreign language (FL) classes and compares favors and disfavors ideas in this regard. Among a welter of reasons which have been proffered by a variety of authors and can be considered as the merits of literature in FLT, this study focuses on authenticity, cultural/incultural understanding, critical thinking and language skills and expand them further. This paper argues that teaching literature enhances students’ cultural understanding, facilitates critical thinking and improves language skills and all of these advantages caused by the authentic nature of literature.

Translation and the Contemporary Language Teacher

Abstract Due to the point that translation is still a controversial issue in foreign language teaching and also with respect to the fact that translation remains a significant component in various foreign language teaching programs, the present study attempts to investigate the importance of translation in foreign language learning and teaching. The present study is twofold: The first aim is to present a literary review of the role and benefits of translation in foreign language development and the second aim is to discover English Language Teaching (ELT) teacher candidates’ perceptions of the translation activity as an instrument for assisting foreign language learning development. A questionnaire consisting of 15 items was administered to the participants and the data were statistically analysed

The Use of Foreign Language Learning Strategies in English and French

Objective: To identify conceptions about learning held by students and teachers in the undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching program at the University of Antioquia School of Languages and the frequency with which students use learning strategies to develop communicative competence in English and French. Method: An exploratory and descriptive study was conducted using qualitative and quantitative method. Students and teachers participated in semi-structured interviews individually and in groups, and the students' self-assessment of their learning process was analyzed. Students' learning strategies were described using the questionnaire ''Strategy Inventory for Language Learning'' (version 5.1, Oxford, 1990).Results: For the students, learning is an intellectual development process that requires the use of skills specific to a foreign language. Teachers' conceptions can be classified under four theories of learning: behaviorist, psycholinguistic, pragmatic, and sociocultural. Regarding the use of learning strategies, results show that affective and memory strategies are the least frequently used, whereas cognitive, social, and compensation strategies are the most frequently used. Conclusions: The qualitative analysis of the students' and teachers' conceptions indicates that there are differences in the use of learning strategies between the two languages. However, the quantitative results of the study evidence that, in both English and French, students use learning strategies with the same frequency and in the same way.
 Received: 01-09-09 / Accepted: 04-03-10
 How to reference this article:
 Orrego, L. M. & Diaz Monsalve, A. E. (2010). Empleo de estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras: inglés y francés. Íkala.15(1), pp.105-142.

An Extensive Reading Approach to Language Teaching

Reading, together with its various expressions, holds a leading position in foreign language teaching programs due to its huge educational significance. The article studies the role of extensive reading in language teaching, the ways of its application as well as its contribution to language teaching as a whole. Research suggests that extensive reading not only contributes to the improvement of reading skills of students, but also enriches their vocabulary and helps them perceive the new meanings of the already familiar words more easily.

An Intercultural Approach for Language Teaching: Developing Critical Cultural Awareness

This article presents the pedagogical experience of a teacher implementing an intercultural approach in an undergraduate foreign language teaching program. The students who participated in this experience were interviewed in order to demonstrate that an intercultural approach is an effective alternative to developing students’ critical cultural awareness, as well as to explore the critical relationship between language and culture. Analysis of the interviews revealed critical cultural awareness in students’ teaching practices and personal views. It also showed students becoming conscious of the essential role of culture in language teaching.
 How to reference thus article:
 Agudelo, J. J. (2007). An Intercultural Approach for Language Teaching: Developing Critical Cultural Awareness. Íkala. 12(1), pp. 185 – 217.

Refining Students’ Academic Writing Skills in an Undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching Program

This article reports the findings of an action research study aimed at helping advanced English students refine their academic writing skills. The study was carried out with undergraduate students of the Foreign Language Teaching Program (English) at Universidad Surcolombiana. The methods used included process writing -outlining, revising, and editing with peers' and instructor's feedback-, as well as use of sources, content, grammar, coherence, cohesion and feedback. Received: 31-03-06 / Accepted: 13-08-06 How to reference this article: Zúñiga, G. & Fernando Macias, D. (2006). Refining Students’ Academic Writing Skills in an Undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching Program. Íkala. 11 (1), pp. 311 – 336.

Evaluating Research Skills Development in a Colombian Undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching Program

The implementation of a research component in an undergraduate foreign language teaching program directed towards preservice development is evaluated in this research. Results show that factors such as course syllabi, professors' methodology, and administration leadership affect this curricular innovation. Despite difficulties, research skill development can be improved with the necessary training, support, and time for professors' understanding and collaboration. Received: 31-05-05 / Accepted: 02-08-05 How to reference this article: McNulty Ferri, M. & Usma Wilches, J. (2005). Evaluating Research Skills Development in a Colombian Undergraduate Foreign Language Teaching Program. Íkala. 10 (1), pp. 95 – 125

Promoting Autonomy Through Project Work

This article presents teacher and learners' experience implementing project work as a strategy the authors used in an undergraduate foreign language teaching program at an important public university in Colombia. In order to find support for their view that project work is an effective approach to developing future teachers' autonomy, students who had participated in project work were interviewed and their responses were analyzed using Benson's contributions 1997, 2001 on autonomous learning,and Legutke and Thomas (1991) on project work as a framework. The authors discuss the following issues based on the students' experience: stages in the development of the project, characteristics of project work, and its relevance to developing learner autonomy. Received: 26- 05- 04 /Accepted: 07-09-04 How to reference this article: Mesa Villa, C. P. & Frodden Armstrong, M. C. (2004). Promoting Autonomy Through Project Work. Íkala. 9(1), pp. 205 – 230

Autonomy in foreign language teacher education

This paper summarizes the findings of a research project conducted on the development of autonomy in foreign language teaching programs in two Colombian universities. This project can be seen as an outcome of an overall project (COFE Project), supported by the British and Colombian governments in which twenty-six other universities participated. The aim of the COFE project was to improve the quality of pre-service English language teaching programs (Licenciaturas) by qualifying teacher educators and promoting learner autonomy through the donation of resources centers.

Action Research in a Graduate Foreign Language Teaching Program

This article presents the findings of an investigation on the process of carrying out collaborative action research with teachers of English as a foreign language in a newly created graduate program, in a Colombian university. From the analysis of interviews and minutes of meetings with students and advisors, important issues that impinge on the successful development of the research process were found. The difficulties notwithstanding, participants emphasized the benefits of this experience in terms of empowerment and learning.
 How to reference this article:
 Frodden, C. (1999). Action research in a graduate foreign language teaching program. Íkala. 4 (1-2), pp. 101 – 124 

Linguistic awareness of the translation process

This paper examines the linguistic awareness of the translation process by analyzing the self-corrections made by native subjects. Thirty (30) subjects, twenty-seven (27) of whom were native English speakers who had acquired French as a foreign language, and three (3) of whom were native French speakers who had acquired English as a foreign language, were requested to make a simultaneous interpretation of a variant of Little Red Riding Hood from English into French. The story, which was 1:14 minutes long, had previously been recorded on audio tape at a rate of 164 wpm. Subjects listened to the story through head-phones while speaking into a microphone. Immediately following the experiment, subjects were asked questions about the content of the story and about their translation strategies. Subjects were videotaped during the experiment and during the interview. The analysis of the transcripts focused on the spontaneous self-corrections made by the subjects while interpreting. The self-corrections were divided into three categories: A. Corrections of Content; B. Corrections of Grammar; C. Corrections of Style. The largest distribution of errors (55.56%:15) fell into the grammatical category and the majority of these (93.33%:14) dealt with adjustments of the masculine and feminine gender of French nouns expressed in definite articles, indefinite articles, and possessive pronouns. The self-corrections confirm previous findings by Gerver (1974) that subjects do monitor themselves while interpreting. The fact that valuable time was spent correcting grammatical points that cause no misunderstanding suggest that the foreign language teaching programs in the United States train students to strive for grammatical correctness at the cost of meaningful communication.