Language Teaching Profession Research Articles

Towards a Research Agenda on Individual Differences in ELT in Nigeria

AbstractThere are a variety of individual differences that English language teaching (ELT) professionals cannot afford to ignore. This essay is based on a premise that teaching and learning English in Nigeria’s multilingual background of 526 languages (Ethnologue, 2018) present an extraordinary context of multiculturalism and individual differences in the language classroom. ELT professionals in such a context require significant expertise in the application of inclusive practices. The essay identified gaps in the praxis and policy dimensions of Nigerian ELT practice relating to individual differences and suggested a research focus on these two areas. It concluded that teachers should adopt clear, empirically tested methodologies to cater for the different students in the class, create good relationships in the classroom to develop learner self-confidence, integrate activities and tasks that clearly appeal to different learning styles and personalities, personalize learning as much as possible, create learner autonomy, and pay attention to cultural variations among L2 learners.

English Morphology for the Language Teaching Profession

English Morphology for the Language Teaching Profession

Commitment to the profession of ELT and an organization: A profile of expat faculty in South Korea

Despite its attention in the field of education, occupational commitment has received little attention in language teaching research. To address this gap, the study generates an occupational commitment profile of expatriate English language teachers and investigates how commitment relates to their age, sex, teaching experience, and qualifications. Eighty-two native English-speaking teachers at a private university in South Korea participated in the study by completing a survey measuring their affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the profession of English language teaching (ELT) and to their workplace. The descriptive results indicated that the sample had high affective commitment to the profession of ELT but low overall commitment to their organization. Results from MANCOVA, which controlled for the covariates of age and sex, indicated that respondents with teacher qualifications from their home countries tended to have higher levels of affective and normative commitment to the profession of ELT and to their workplace than respondents without teacher qualifications. However, no differences in commitment were found between respondents with ELT qualifications and respondents without ELT qualifications, nor were any differences found in commitment associated with ELT experience. Because affective-normative dominant profiles are associated with better workplace outcomes, such as effort given to an organization and lower turnover intentions, further consideration of this finding should be of high priority in language teacher commitment research.

Psychological Principles of Learner’s Autonomy

The purpose of the article is to define the learner’s autonomy as a multilayered concept which is possible to see from numerous perspectives; to describe three main directions of learner’s autonomy; to explain the context of reactive and proactive autonomy; to propose the psychological principles of forming learners’ autonomy. Methods of the research. The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: the categorical method, the structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization. The results of the research. In this article there were suggested the main aspects of learner’s autonomy which appeared to have been recognized and broadly accepted by the language teaching profession. They are: autonomy is a construct of capacity; autonomy involves a willingness on the part of the learners to take responsibility for their own learning; the capacity and willingness of learners to take such responsibility is not necessarily innate; complete autonomy is an idealistic goal; there are some degrees of autonomy; the degrees of autonomy are unstable and variable; autonomy is not simply a matter of placing learners into the situations where they have to be independent; developing autonomy requires conscious awareness of the learning process – e. g. conscious reflection and decision-making; promoting autonomy is not simply a matter of teaching strategies; autonomy can take place both inside and outside the classroom; autonomy has a social purpose as well as the individual actuality; the promotion of autonomy has a pedagogical as well as psychological impact; autonomy is interpreted differently by people of different cultures. The main problems being very important for learner’s autonomy are distinguished. The first great problem is control over learning management. The next problem which is very important for learner’s autonomy is control over language content. It was shown that reactive autonomy was the kind which did not create its own directions but, once a direction has been initiated, enabled learners to organize their resources autonomously in order to reach their goal. Proactive autonomy does not only determine objectives, selects methods and evaluates what has been learned, but also sets directions.A key to motivating students helps them to recognize and understand that they can take responsibility by their own learning: tie learning to students’ personal interests; let students to work together to meet learning goals; give students a voice in their own learning. Conclusions. So, we can propose some psychological principles of forming learners’ autonomy. 1. Set clear performance standards from the start. Students need to know exactly what is expected of them, how they will be graded, and what supports will be available to them if they need help learning the information or growing their own skills. When teachers formulate some main performance expectations, they have to consider the diverse backgrounds and experiences of each student. 2. Help students to develop a sense of ownership over the learning process. As a part of the process of offering students meaningful choices, teachers must be clear about how the choices relate to the learning objectives or standards. When students have the opportunity to be involved in making these choices, they take more responsibility for their own learning. 3. Provide feedback to students that will give them precise information about the particular skills they have acquired and/or need to improve in order to be successful in their class. 4. Encourage students to assess their own learning progress by using charts or keeping journals, so they can evaluate the progress they are making as they acquire relevant knowledge and skills.

Towards Post-postmethodism: Embracing a New Generation of Methodism

Postmethod is the offspring of language teaching methods failure in meeting their objectives, a failure which led to disillusionment with the concept of method. To solve this pedagogical challenge, postmethod stigmatized those taking the initiative to develop new methods as making a futile attempt. Therefore, it exerted a deterrent effect on the developmental trend of language teaching methods. All these measures were taken following postmethodism’s major precept: it is the concept of method which should be to blame. True, the concept of method, as grasped so far, is both “limited and limiting” (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 1). But what if there is another possibility? What if future methods can surpass the boundaries of the past methods? By making an analogy between the developmental trend of assessment and that of language teaching methods and by referring to the potentials of Artificial Intelligence, especially those of intelligent computer assisted language learning (ICALL), this study attempts to provide compelling evidence about the inevitability of a methodism resurgence in the language teaching profession and the emergence of dynamic methods as a new generation of methodism.

When Queer Meets Teacher: A Narrative Inquiry of the Lived Experience of a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language

Queer teachers, as a result of inherent heterosexuality, have been historically living in a society of victimization and marginalization. Despite advances in LGBT rights and policies, research on queer teachers remains contextually undertheorized. Thus, this paper, based on life history interview, presents a narrative study of a non-local English teacher working in Thai higher education. Premised on the post-structuralist perspectives, this article aims to explore the construction of queer self as a professional language teacher through how sexuality is negotiated in the process of interacting with diverse subjects. The findings illustrate the fluidity of queer subjectivity within different discourses, where corresponding strategies are self-imposed to negotiate the boundaries between queer and professional selves. While queer individuals are affected by the dominant discourse of heteronormativity, queer visibility within institutional cultures comes down to a subjective piece. We conclude that queer teachers are professional subjects since the discourse of queer as professional is (re)constructed and normalised at the workplace.

Rethinking TESOL in Diverse Global Settings: The Language and the Teacher in a Time of Change

In this book, Marr and English raise and address many of the most significant questions that English language teaching professionals have been asking regarding the TESOL profession and TESOL teacher education for many years. The book invites readers, English language teachers and English language teacher educators alike to reflect on what constitutes the knowledge foundation for TESOL practice and English language teachers’ professional identities. It also encourages readers to re-examine the language that English language teachers teach, the ways in which they perceive themselves and are perceived by others, and how they can use these new understandings to deliver lessons with meaningful impact on language learners. Marr and English’s thoughtful engagement with these crucial questions makes the...

The implementation of contemporary progressive teaching methods in teaching foreign languages in the framework of additional education

The article deals with the problems of educational technologies, contemporary progressive teaching methods used for professional language teaching. The use of these technologies in the framework of additional language education. Special attention is given to learning language for specific purposes and different additional language programs that provide professional language training.

English language teaching professionals' trajectories within the context of learning organisations

AbstractEnglish as a foreign language teachers' associations (henceforth ELTAs) act as empowering platforms for English Language Teaching (ELT) professionals (Lamb, 2012), and yet the contributions of ELTA leaders have not been widely investigated in the fields of second language acquisition and language pedagogy. In order to fill this niche, a qualitative interview study explored the professional trajectories of successful teacher trainers. The paper gives an account of the motivation for continuing professional development (CPD) through the turning points in these professionals' early careers. The findings suggest that there are some similarities behind the motivating factors for CPD and the increasing participation in social spheres (Lave & Wenger, 1991) leads to professional growth. Moving from the periphery towards the centre in a Community of Practice (CoP) the participants of CoPs become knowledge providers. The results reveal that after members have reached their own plateau and can no longer grow professionally in a particular CoP, they either move on to a different, often more challenging CoP and often belong to different CoPs and even end up as the leaders of ELTAs. Limitations and further research suggestions are included at the end of the paper.

Between Two Worlds? Research Engagement Dilemmas of University English Language Teachers in Vietnam

If enhancing the connection between teaching and research has been highlighted in the general English language teaching profession, does English teaching at university – the ivory tower characterized by research – face the same issue? And how might this affect how the profession is perceived? This study provides an in-depth examination of how university English language teaching (ELT) teachers conceptualize research and their doing research, and discusses the issue in connection with the notion of profession. The study uses teacher cognition semi-structured interviewing with faculty members teaching English at a university in Vietnam. The results show ELT faculty construct different versions of research to rationalize their attitudes, self-awareness, and practices: research as irrelevant impositions, research as desirable but unfeasible goals, and research as practical, inner calls. Revealing this group’s dilemmas between two worlds – practitioners and academics, external pressures and internal values, visions and realities, – the study argues that to increase research engagement, practical support is needed, but a reconceptualization of research is also an important factor. Also, understanding and realizing the teaching-research nexus in ELT hold implications for the profession’s status and the professional’s identity and autonomy.

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.

Iranian Language Teachers’ Passion for the Profession: A Qualitative Study

To explore Iranian professionally developed English teachers’ passion for the English language teaching profession, an interview with 7 open-ended questions was conducted to 14 Iranian professionally developed teachers to discover what factors were at work in their professional growth. Participants included 8 Ph.D. holders, 3 Ph.D. candidates, and 3 M.A. holders in TEFL who had more than 20 years of service in the Iranian context and were chosen by purposive sampling. After interviewing the participants via a standard interview and delving deeply into the emotional aspects of their professional journey throughout their lives, the following factors emerged from the analysis of the transcriptions of the interviews as reasons to have and sustain passion for language teaching profession: acceptance of change, cooperating with colleagues, being a model, establishing relationships, helping the students, meeting personal needs, contributing to the society, and love of learning/language.

Native speaker saviorism: a racialized teaching ideology

ABSTRACT The notion of native speakerism describes the tendency to privilege and uphold “native speakers” as inherently more qualified to teach English on the arbitrary basis of linguistic birthright. In spite of the widespread recognition and critique of native speakerism within TESOL, it remains pervasive in professional practice, most evident in inequitable recruiting and hiring practices of English language teachers in a variety of global contexts. In this article, we propose that the imperviousness of native speakerism results from the enduring ideological commitment to what we call native speaker saviorism, which reflects the long-standing assumption that the White community can “save” peoples of color by teaching them English. As an illustrative case study, we analyze a series of responses to the financial precarity of the English language teaching profession in South Korea following governmental budgetary cuts starting in 2014. The analysis foregrounds the ideologies of racism in the form of White normativity and White saviorism that construct, legitimize, and rationalize the need for native speakers of English in South Korea. The analysis is followed by a series of recommendations for moving beyond native speaker saviorism in language teaching.

English as a lingua franca: From theory to practice

English as a lingua franca (ELF) refers to ‘any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option’ (Seidlhofer, 2011, p. 7*). ELF research started relatively recently. It was only discussed occasionally in the last century. Landmark changes were the publications of Jenkins (2000*) and Seidlhofer (2001*). These works inspired more research into ELF, as witnessed by a dramatically increased interest in ELF since then, resulting in a large number of journal articles, monographs, edited books (e.g. Mauranen & Ranta, 2009*) and large corpora (e.g. the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, the Corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Settings, and the Asian Corpus of English). In addition, ELF researchers have launched the annual conference series (International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca), the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, and the De Gruyter book series Developments in English as a Lingua Franca. These publications move from an initial understanding of ELF as a ‘variety’ or ‘varieties’ to a later conceptualisation of ELF as a dynamic, fluid and variable phenomenon. ELF has become a major focus of discussions and activities among both applied linguists and English language teaching professionals (Jenkins, Cogo, & Dewey, 2011).

The IATEFL Conference Scholarship Awards: “Translate the person into the global”

The quote in the title, which comes from a piece of advice for scholarship applicants by a past IATEFL conference scholarship winner, captures much of the essence of what it is to be at IATEFL and be the recipient of a conference scholarship award. For many, attending the annual IATEFL conference may seem to be an unachievable goal, because of distance, costs or academic standing. With approximately 3,000 English Language Teaching professionals from around the world gathering at the April event, the IATEFL conference is the largest ELT gathering in Europe, and second largest in the world, after the annual TESOL Convention in the United States. As well as an opportunity to learn from the profession’s ‘famous voices’, the conference enables professionals to interact with peers from around the globe, sharing classroom experiences and learning stories, which many remember most. The annual IATEFL conference is, rightly, viewed as a very prestigious event in the ELT conference calendar. But, given the distance and associated travel and subsistence costs, it’s easy to see why some teachers might think that attending is a professional goal that is beyond them. Indeed, one of the overwhelming pieces of feedback from scholarship winners is that, with so many applicants from so many different countries, they rarely think that they’re going to win. However, in the words of one winner, “Don’t think that you are not good enough to win. It’s all about staying true to who you are as a teacher!” There are multiple awards each year, and someone has to win them!

Reflection before action: Students’ perceptions of selected aspects of the language teaching profession

The study explores trainee teachers’ opinions on selected aspects of the languageteaching profession. Reflecting on the reasons for becoming a teacher, on a language teacher’s professional qualities, and on the positive and negative aspects of the profession appears to be necessary at the starting point of professional training. A qualitative method was employed to collect the data. The students were asked to answer four survey questions pertaining to the issues mentioned above. Thirty-five undergraduate students completed the survey. Their answers were then analysed, which resulted in suggesting some procedures that could be implemented in the training programme. The findings revealed generally positive attitudes to the language teaching profession. However, some actions should be also taken to eliminate a few subjective theories that could negatively influence the students’ approach, such as the feeling of having power over learners, or controversial ways of dealing with discipline problems in the classroom. The study emphasised the role of reflection in the initial stages of teacher training

The Relationship between TESOL Teachers’ Attitudes towards Grammar Teaching and their Grammatical Knowledge

Grammar teaching continues to be a controversy matter in the field of teaching and teacher Education. It is generally agreed that attention to grammatical form is necessary and useful, but many issues related to teaching grammar still needs further research (Barnard & Scampton, 2008:59). This study investigated the relationship between Omani TESOL (teaching English to speakers’ of other languages) teachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching and their grammatical knowledge. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 40 respondents teaching English in Omani schools. The findings showed that there was a positive correlation between teachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching and their grammatical knowledge. However, there were no effect of gender on teachers’ grammatical knowledge and no effect of teaching experiences on attitude towards grammar teaching. The findings indicated that the final model of standard multiple regression showed that teachers attitudes towards grammar, gender, experience, age and the educational phase they teach in did not make a statistically significant unique contribution to the prediction of their grammatical knowledge. Such findings suggest directions for further studies in investigating the influence of language teachers’ attitudes/knowledge on their classroom practices.INTRODUCTIONIn recent years, grammar teaching has regained its rightful place in language curricula. Language teaching professionals are now of the belief that grammar cannot be ignored, and that without a good grammatical knowledge, learners’ language development can be severely constrained (Baleghizadeh & Farshchi, 2009). Grammar teaching and learning has attracted significant research attention. For example, many studies examined teachers’ explicit or declarative knowledge about grammar (e.g. Shuib, 2009; Andrews, 1994; Bloor, 1986). These studies showed that learners and teachers had encountered inadequate levels of grammatical knowledge. Other studies focussed on L2 and FL teachers’ beliefs about teaching grammar (Baleghizadeh & Farshchi, 2009; Borg& Burns, 2008). Borg and Burn’s (2008) study indicated that teachers expressed very strong beliefs in the need to avoid teaching grammar in isolation and reported high levels of integrating grammar in their practices. Baleghizadeh and Farshchi’s (2009) study revealed that teachers’ beliefs could be traced back to their long experience of teaching textbooks that heavily draw on deductive approaches to teaching grammar. Yet, we have to fully understand whether teachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching have an influence on their grammatical knowledge. This is important because teachers’ attitudes/beliefs play a major role in influencing what they do in the classroom (Borg, 2006; Borg, 2003). Moreover, Shulman (1987) stressed that in order to teach grammar appropriately teachers need both grammatical knowledge and the skills “pedagogical content knowledge”. Thus, the current study focused on in-service TESOL teachers’ attitudes towards grammar teaching, and their grammatical knowledge to see if there is a correlation between the two and whether other background differences affect their knowledge of and attitudes towards grammar. This might help teacher educators to see the relationship as well as the impact of

Öğretmen Adaylarının ‘yerli konuşmacılık’ İdeolojisini Nasıl Algıladıkları

This qualitative study explores the opinions of 23 preservice teachers on native-speakerism in the English language teaching (ELT) profession. The participants were asked to respond to a prompt in writing, with reference to the situation in Turkey. They were at the same time doing a practicum, so they were able draw on their experiences in their cooperating schools, where foreign teachers were part of the staff. Their essays reflected a particular concern with discrimination in hiring practices and a strong rejection of the native-English-speaker teacher (NEST) / non-native-English-speaker teacher (NNEST) divide. They also exhibited an awareness of other paradigms such as a lingua franca (ELF) and World Englishes (WE).

Accommodating Learners With Dyslexia in English Language Teaching in Sri Lanka: Teachers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Challenges

It is estimated that 10% of the world's population has dyslexia or related learning difficulties, and it is therefore vital for language teachers to have a thorough understanding of such difficulties and of inclusive teaching techniques. It is believed that teacher training can increase teachers’ knowledge of dyslexia and inclusion, inculcate positive attitudes among them on inclusion, and increase their self‐efficacy beliefs. The study discussed in this article analysed a teacher training programme aimed at a group of English language teaching professionals in Sri Lanka to determine if it could attain these achievements. The study also examined the challenges that teachers would face in introducing inclusive practices into their context. A questionnaire and interview data revealed that the teacher training programme was able to change teachers’ negative attitudes towards dyslexia, increase their knowledge of dyslexia and inclusive practices, and increase their readiness to implement inclusive classroom techniques. The findings also revealed that institutional barriers such as a rigid examination system and lack of flexibility in the curriculum may hinder how inclusive practices are implemented. In addition, negative sociocultural ideology and some practical classroom problems may affect implementation.

World Englishes in English language teaching: Kachru's six fallacies and the TEIL paradigm

AbstractIn recent years, there has been increased interest among English language teaching (ELT) professionals in world Englishes (WE) studies. This article examines the influence of Braj Kachru's work and WE studies in general on ELT. After a brief historical overview of the disciplinary relationship between WE and ELT, it discusses the current place of WE in ELT and presents the framework of Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), an innovative paradigm in ELT that heavily draws from WE. The article ends with insights into future, speculating how WE will continue to be resourceful to ELT.