English Practice Research Articles

Teacher Cognition of EFL Assessment: A Case Study of Professional Development on Performance-based Language Assessment in Japan

This qualitative study, conducted in Hokkaido, Japan, concerns the investigation of the teacher cognition and practice of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) assessment and the impact of a professional development (PD) program on the participants. The PD program was carried out as a series of seven in-service workshops with five native speakers of English teaching in Japanese schools and universities. The workshops aimed to provide these teachers with a basic theoretical and practical understanding of performance-based language assessment. Another major purpose of the PD was for the teachers to conduct research and publish a paper concerning language assessment. In the study, the recording of teacher reflections was used as the data collection method. From the analysis of the data, the findings show that the PD program has positively affected the teachers. They have learned about alternative ways to assess the students, gained greater self-reliance, and became confident as teacher-assessors.

Development of interactional practices for initiating and extending small talk in service encounters

Research indicates the importance of small talk in achieving professional goals and promoting social relationships in workplaces, and yet second-language (L2) users often face challenges in participating in small talk. As such, the need for teaching small talk has been emphasized; however, the understanding of how L2 interactional practices for small talk develop remains limited. This study aims to demonstrate the change in L2 English practices used for initiating and extending small talk that occurred during service encounters over a thirty-month period. The data were gathered from 74 h of audiovisual recordings of service encounters at a small convenience store in Hawai'i. The focal participant is the service provider, a Korean adult with limited L2 English proficiency, who had emigrated from South Korea a year before the start of the data collection. By employing multimodal conversation analysis (CA) and the Pearson's chi-square test, the results of the study demonstrated three aspects of change in the service provider's practices for small talk: increasing the frequency of initiations, emerging new methods for initiation, and developing expansion techniques for small-talk sequences. The study advances the understanding of the development of multimodal L2 interactional practices for small talk in service encounters.

Students’ Perceptions of Duolingo Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Learning English Vocabulary

This study aimed to find out the students’ perceptions of Duolingo Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in learning English vocabulary. This study involved 32 seventh-grade students from SMPN 1 Pangkajene during the academic year 2022/2023. Descriptive quantitative was used to carry out the study. This study's data was analyzed using quantitative data from a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 30 closed-ended questions. The study found that the Duolingo application positively impacted students' language learning, particularly in acquiring new vocabulary. Students are becoming more enthusiastic to learn and are practicing and using their language skills in everyday circumstances. Furthermore, after using the Duolingo app, students' vocabulary and ability to recall it rapidly improve, as do structure and pronunciation, making it easier for students to improve their English language acquisition. Students found the app easy, helpful, and enjoyable for their English language learning practice. They prefer it over traditional book-based homework due to its convenience, accessibility in various formats, especially mobile, and gamification. The application’s success is attributed to its varied prompts skill-interleaving lessons gamification aspects and diverse lesson content perceived by the students.

Analysis of the practice in college English listening teaching based on multimedia technology

Abstract Multimedia speech labs have been greatly developed in English teaching in recent years to minimize the laboratory background noise in speech signals. In this paper, from analyzing and improving the dynamic noise reduction model of the original system, two noise removal schemes, wavelet analysis and Wiener filtering are studied more systematically, and a speech enhancement model, wavelet domain Wiener filtering noise reduction model (WWF), is proposed and initially implemented by fusing the two. This model can better meet the requirements of the original system, thus laying a better foundation for subsequent speech recognition. Finally, the algorithm is used to optimize the multimedia all-digital language learning system and test this multimedia technology’s effectiveness for college English listening teaching. In the two listening tests, the average score of the experimental class in the first test increased by 6.1 points compared to the first test score, while the control class only increased by 1.8 points, and the average score of the experimental class in the second test increased by 12.9%, while the control class increased by 6.7%. Therefore, combining multimedia and foreign language teaching can make teaching activities integrate text, sound, image, image, and animation, which can mobilize and stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm and initiative to the maximum extent and thus improve teaching efficiency.

Two-Way Immersion Classrooms during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Student Learning

The present study examined parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of student learning in Spanish–English Dual Language Education (DLE) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants included 72 parents of students from kindergarten to second grade and eight teachers in two schools in the southeastern U.S. Parents retrospectively reported their perceptions of their children’s instruction and learning experiences in English and Spanish during the 2020–2021 school year. Teachers reported if their students had opportunities to practice oral bilingual skills and their perception of students’ improvement in English and Spanish skills. Parents reported that there were more opportunities to practice English than there were to practice Spanish. Teachers reported that remote instruction offered fewer opportunities than hybrid instruction did to practice oral language skills. Overall, the teachers agreed that students’ language skills in English and Spanish improved. Similarly, the parents agreed that students’ language skills improved; however, they reported that their English skills improved more than their Spanish skills did. Student and family background factors, such as language fluency and parental education, were negatively associated with barriers to remote access. Implications for future research and suggestions for supporting students attending DLE programs during remote instruction are offered.

Who is Mr. H2? Or expanding the view on hydrogen economy

The development of the global hydrogen industry as part of the new energy industry is largely constrained by low efficiency of hydrogen conversion and synthesis and the high end-to-end cash cost of the feedstock. Similar problems, as well as problems of transportation, are experienced by world trade. A new method that can increase the investment attractiveness of high-risk hydrogen production projects is the use of tokenization technologies based on digital financial assets (DFA) or security/utility tokens, as they are called in traditional English practice. Tokens are issued on a popular blockchain (for example, Ethereum) and are an independent settlement and guarantee tool, to which a smart contract (possibly staged) is linked, including a certain type of contract, and the parameters of a unique key token. There are pilot tokenization projects in traditional industries, such as mining - these are complex tools for fundraising (raising funds) and settlements between the participants in the transaction. The article discusses various options for using DFA to stimulate the development of the hydrogen sphere in order to reduce the burden on states as a regulator, incl. Through attraction of public investments, as well as the use of DFA to automate the goods and transport work in the future mass hydrogen market and the prospects for building an adequate regulatory environment for this tool.

The Effectiveness of Repetition Drill Technique To Improve Electrical Engineering Student’s Speaking Skill

The purpose of this study is to investigate how effective the repetition drill technique is in improving the speaking ability of the 2022–2023 Second Semester Electrical Engineering students at Cilacap State Polytechnic. The study was conducted using a classroom action research technique, and 23 students participated as study participants. A pretest was administered to find out what obstacles the students faced, and the average score was 39.67. Data were collected using an oral exam over three study cycles. The average score of the students in the first cycle, conducted on March 21, 2023, was 46.73. Next, the average score of the students for the second test conducted on March 22, 2023, was 67.93. On March 24, 2023, the average score for Cycle 3 students would be 82.06. The student's average score improves on rounds 1–3. The student's speaking ability improves gradually. This is confirmed by the post-test results obtained in the categories of 'good' and 'excellent' after 3 cycles of review exercises in English practice class. Students' pronunciation and language skills improves significantly. In summary, this study proved that repetition drill techniques can be used very effectively in English practice courses.

What engineers will Ukraine need tomorrow? Experience of Spain in the formation of the content of the training of industrial design engineers

Purpose. Identify discrepancies and propose ways to eliminate them between the needs of the Ukrainian economy reflected in the requirements of employers, and in the content of the training of industrial design engineers in Ukraine using the European experience of the Spanish school. The methods. Using the method of analysis and synthesis, we made an analysis of the labor market and the content of the training of engineers applying for the position of industrial designer, and also studied the European experience of forming the content of the training of industrial designers. The convergent process of forming judgments is used to find and formulate ways to eliminate discrepancies between the needs of the labor market and the content of specialist training. Findings. The problem is that there is a need to rethink the training of industrial designers. The analysis showed the inappropriateness of the training of industrial design specialists in Ukraine within the framework of the field 02 Culture and art. Today and tomorrow, Ukrainian enterprises need specialists in the engineering profile who are educated in the society of morality and behavior, which are adequate to modern relations between man and the surrounding natural environment under the conditions of sustainable development and who are ready to take responsibility at every stage of the product life cycle and carry out business activities. Therefore, the content of preparation of educational programs should take into account all the needs of the Ukrainian economy. In order to recognize Ukrainian specialists as full members of European society, it is also necessary to take into account the experience of European countries. The originality. Using the convergent process of forming judgments, the peculiarities of the formation of OPs for the training of engineers in industrial design were revealed. The identified features are reflected in the proposed list of competencies of the educational program for training engineers in industrial design, which take into account the needs of the Ukrainian economy and the experience of the Spanish school of industrial design, which has incorporated the best English and European practices. Practical implementation. The proposed list of competencies will allow the formation of educational training programs that are relevant for today.

PRE-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF TEACHING COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT OVER THE TESOL COURSE

The English teaching practice is an essential part of a TESOL methodology course as it can offer TESOL students or pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers valuable experience in actual teaching environments. Additionally, TESOL methodology courses play a crucial role in providing pre-service EFL teachers with excellent chances to master their professional knowledge to become competent language teachers in the future. In this regard, pre-service teachers’ improvement in knowledge, attitudes, and professional skills in teaching English is of vital importance to their teaching career since they assist pre-service EFL teachers in displaying teaching abilities. This study aimed at examining pre-service teachers’ perception of their teaching competency development after taking 45 periods of the English teaching course, which is a compulsory course in the MA program. 121 pre-service EFL teachers, whose majors are TESOL methodology, answered the self-assessment questionnaire survey in this study. The SPSS software was utilized for data analysis. The findings disclosed that pre-service EFL teachers believed that their teaching competencies were developed after learning the teaching practice course. Specifically, they improved their knowledge and teaching skills so as to attract students to their lessons. Pedagogical implications are suggested for policymakers and teacher trainers to enhance pre-service EFL teachers’ teaching competencies based on the preliminary results of the current study.

Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards the Utilization of Duolingo in EFL Learning

Education sector in the 21st Century has continuously changed and relied more on technology. The evolution of the use of technology in education leads to the emergence of gamification. Duolingo is a language learning platform that provides free language courses through web and mobile apps that instills gamification aspects. The objective of this study is to investigate the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the utilization of Duolingo in EFL learning. This descriptive study involved twenty students of a non-English education study program through purposive sampling technique. The criteria of selecting the participants were based on the participation in English Learning class and the active use Duolingo for English practice outside the course hours. The researchers employed a questionnaire and an interview to collect the data. The data of the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively through simple percentage analysis of SPSS. Meanwhile, the data of the interview were analyzed qualitatively through Miles, et al. Model consisting of collection, classification, description, interpretation, and conclusion. The results revealed that the students provided positive feedbacks towards thirty statements of questionnaire and three questions of interview that representing their perceptions and attitudes towards the utilization of Duolingo in EFL learning. The students believed that learning English through Duolingo was easy, fun, engaging, and motivating. In short, the students had positive perceptions and attitudes towards the utilization of Duolingo in EFL learning.

Reviewing the Significance of Practice in Learning English as a Second Language

In the globalized world, mastering English as a second language is crucial. However, many learners face a significant obstacle: the lack of practice. This review explores the importance of practice in language acquisition, its role in vocabulary, grammar, and fluency development, and how it connects classroom learning to real-world communication. The author identifies factors contributing to the lack of practice, including limited exposure to native speakers, cultural barriers, and fear of mistakes. This lack has consequences, such as slower progress, communication difficulties, and limited opportunities. To address these challenges, we propose strategies like language exchange programs, diverse English use, authentic materials, technology platforms, and supportive classrooms. The author emphasizes the partnership between educators and learners in fostering practice. In conclusion, practice is essential for learning English. The author calls for collective efforts to bridge the gap between instruction and application, creating an environment where language learners thrive

Aligning Pedagogical Beliefs and Technology Integration in English Language Teaching: A Multiple-Case Study of Islamic Senior High School EFL Teachers

Understanding how teachers' pedagogical beliefs regarding language teaching and learning have been transferred into technology integration practices in English teaching would assist teachers in optimizing learning outcomes and facilitating teaching-learning. The purpose of this study is to explore how language teachers' pedagogical beliefs, which beliefs about language instruction and learning that have been translated into technology integration in English instructional practice. This study used a case study as the research design, this research also used other instruments, there were interview guidelines, documents checklist, and observation form/field notes. The data analysis of this study consisted of two phases: within-case analysis (phase 1) and cross-case analysis (phase 2). The results of this study showed rule-based practices with technology implemented by teachers. In this study typically entailed using technology to support grammar and practice in the classroom. Also, it showed the purposeful study and assessment or application of grammatical rules within appropriate contexts. Moreover, the integration of Islamic education with science and technology learning is expected to be meaningful and easily understandable. Therefore, the goal of Islamic education in leading students to recognize, understand, contemplate, believe, and have a noble character in implementing the teachings of Islam from the primary source, the holy book of Al-Quran and Al-Hadith, can be accomplished through teaching guidance, practicing, and the use of experience

Improving Student`S Speaking Skill By Using Community Language Learning Approach At Eighth Grade Smp N 10 Tarakan

Community Language Learning is a method where the teacher becomes a counselor in the classroom, so that the relationship between teacher and students is more towards the practice of English in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to improve students' English speaking ability by using the Community Language Learning method in the eighth grade of SMP N 10 Tarakan and to describe students' perceptions related to the use of the method. This study used Classroom Action Research design with a total of two cycles and each cycle had four meetings, and involved participants as many as 25 eighth grade students. The research data were obtained from document data, interviews and students' speaking test results. The data were analyzed qualitatively using descriptive statistics and qualitatively using thematic analysis. The results showed that in the first cycle students who scored above the KKM were 11 students and for the second cycle it increased to 21 students. The challenges in using the community language learning method are: teacher and student readiness, teaching media and evaluation of students' speaking ability due to limited time allocation conditions.

Literacies in the English classroom: leveraging and extending the linguistic repertoire of all students

In countries such as Australia, the bi/multilingual student demographic is increasing. Bi/multilingual students are commonly learning alongside monolingual students and also Indigenous and first-and-second-generation immigrant students who have a great range of exposure to heritage languages. In this article, we explore how literacies and language variation can be drawn together in order to support teachers’ navigation of linguistic diversity in the English classroom. More specifically, we discuss how linguistic variation can be an explicit focus, and how extending students’ linguistic repertoire can be an end in itself. If home language resources are solely considered to be a scaffold for standardised English language practices at school, or a way to transition students to English, they are not applicable to monolingual (in English) students nor students who have grown up speaking English as well as another home language. This orientation does not do justice to the learning potential related to linguistic diversity. We propose that the embedding of language variation in literacies and multimodality, digital multimodal composing in particular, is a way to address the intrinsic value of developing students’ linguistic repertoire as a whole.

Whose English gets paid off?—Neoliberal discourses of English and ethnic minority students’ subjectivities in China

AbstractThe study traces the trajectories of Uyghur college students’ subjectivity construction and transformation from Foucault's governmentality perspective. Drawing on ethnographic data of two telling cases, it explores how minoritized students’ subjectivities were linked to neoliberal discourses of English and constituted by power techniques, self‐technologies, and affective dispositions embedded in wider institutional transformations. Participants were found experiencing a shift to the individualistic subjectivity associated with academic achievement and performance in English away from the collective identity of “authentic Uyghur” symbolized by the Uyghur language. Two salient discourses of English, i.e., English as constraints, and English as academic excellence, emerging from the neoliberal‐oriented institutional English language education policies and practices, shaped the participants either as incompetent English learners or elite subjects. Participants learned to responsibilitize themselves through such self‐technologies as confession and preaching, and affective practices. Yet, technologies of hope and optimism became for a few the enjoyment of experiences and performance of elitism while projecting a majority disadvantaged as affectively problematic others. The self‐technologies and affective responses without recognition of larger structures of inequality could further reinforce the neoliberal logic. The affective labor of sense of solidarity, commitment to community, empathy for the deprived ones with critical reflection and collective action, nevertheless, may counter neoliberal logic and point to an alternative path to meaning‐making and social relations.

Correlation factors of translanguaging practices on English as a Foreign Language Contexts: the perception of Teachers

Teaching English in second language contexts seems to have succeeded in implementing only target-language policy allowed during class time. However, the problem persists in teaching English in foreign language contexts where English is not the official and/or first language in those countries. Such situations kept the question unanswered; whether the first language of the target learners should be used during class times in the form of translanguaging or not. While few studies have investigated this issue thoroughly; however very a few of them examined in depth analysis from different perspectives such as: how different factors paly various roles on this issue, how those factors correlate to each other, and how they relate to translanguaging in particular. This study investigates the correlations between translanguaging practices in English as a foreign language context during class time from teachers’ perspectives. Correlation, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and regression analyses showed that there was significant correlation between translanguaging practices and other examined independent variables including gender, same background between teachers and learners’ and first language; whereas no significant correlation was found regarding the teaching experience. The study recommends evaluating learners’ levels even if the focus of the study was on teachers’ perceptions for future research.

Freirean strategies in meaningful learning: A critical pedagogy of contextualized classroom

Employing a qualitative research method and Freire’s critical pedagogy as the main lens, this study explores the techniques of using the contextual approach in the context of secondary level public school in Nepal. Critical pedagogy is seen as one of the burning theories to uplift marginalized learners for equity to enhance the quality of education in the field of English language teaching. Contextualized teaching is not a new approach where its usefulness is understood and practiced. And for lack of training and traditional teaching model still being dominant, this approach has yet to take traction in many school levels of English teaching in Nepal. Data are obtained from participants in-depth interviews and written documents, which were transcribed and analyzed for developing themes. Teachers who have been teaching for long years at secondary level applying contextual approach were purposefully selected as the participants for this study. Through the eyes of the participants the natural world was seen and reached in the conclusion incorporating the practises and experiences. Based on the perspectives of participants and practices the collected data were interpreted and analyzed. Moreover, my own past experience as a student in a rural public school in Nepal also provides the initial drive for this study. Triangulation of data suggests that contextualizing English language teaching practices exists and exhibits in multiple ways and they need to be fore grounded for the benefits they have for innovative teaching, organic leaning, linking learning with real life, and providing students with tools and opportunity to empower themselves as well as own learning.

EMPOWERING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH SOCIAL LEARNING STRATEGIES IN VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

This study aims to investigate students' perceptions of Social Learning Strategy (SLS) in empowering various English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language skills in SMK N 6 Semarang. A descriptive qualitative method was used with a questionnaire survey to collect data from 35 students from SMK N 6 Semarang who completed the first nine items of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire and a background characteristics survey. The study's findings indicate that how English is used in practice affects how well it is learned. The findings showed a connection between using social strategies and effectively learning English. The most commonly used social strategies are to mix Indonesian and English words if students do not know the English word or practice English with the English teacher and classmates.

Lack of Self-confidence in Speaking English language Fluently of English Language Teachers at Public Basic Schools in Erbil

This research investigates the pivotal role of self-confidence in fostering success in acquiring a second language, with a specific emphasis on the proficiency in the English language exhibited by elementary school English teachers in Erbil, Kurdistan. The study seeks to identify the impediments that hinder language educators from attaining fluency in spoken English and delves into the ways in which self-confidence exerts influence over their journey in language acquisition. Employing a quantitative research approach, a questionnaire was administered to a cohort of 41 elementary school English teachers hailing from diverse backgrounds and representing 41 distinct public schools during the academic year of 2021. The analysis of the data hinged on Likert scales applied to assess various variables, ultimately revealing several noteworthy barriers. These barriers encompassed a dearth of motivation, the practice of code-switching between Kurdish and English in classroom communication, inadequate opportunities for English language practice, both within and outside the classroom setting, alongside challenges linked to grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

From colonial celebration to postcolonial performativity: ‘guilty multilingualism’ and ‘performative agency’ in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) context

ABSTRACT This article reports data from a qualitative study conducted within the elitist English-medium schools in three cities of Pakistan to claim that theory building, and English teaching practices are still modeled on monolingual biases inherent in the orthodox notions of linguistic purism and Anglo-normative traditions of the 1990s. Orthodoxy is manifest in schools’ strong emphasis on direct method and communicative language teaching, and essentialist language management where English is enforced as the sole legitimate language of academic and non-academic transactions. Native language use is attached a stigma and viewed as deficiency in the English language. Such Anglo-normative culture invokes guilty conscience in teachers and students as they disapprove native languages even when they know that they can serve as useful meditating tools for effective content transfer. Crucially, amid English gatekeepers’ celebratory attitudes toward English as the sole legitimate language, some teachers still demonstrate deviation from the pervasive linguistic norms. Showing reflexivity and agency, these teachers ideologically oppose the official policy. They discursively generate spaces for negotiating and appropriating the official policies, which signifies that language policy can be a complex multi-layered process rather than a linear, discrete, or top-down phenomenon. Teachers’ agency is interpreted as ‘decolonial performativity’.