Professional English Teaching Research Articles

EFL Teacher Professional Development: Exploring Perspectives and Dominant Efforts in Teaching Integrated English Skills

Teacher professional development (TPD) is interesting to examine since its outcomes relate to the teachers' improvement in professional learning. In this small-scale exploratory study, TPD has been linked to teaching integrated English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and has become a trend in English Language Teaching (ELT). This mixed-method study aimed to reveal the English teachers' perspectives and their dominant efforts on TPD, referring to the eleven procedures (Richards & Farrell, 2005) in teaching integrated skills. The participants of this study were ten professional English teachers who were teaching at ten different public and private junior high schools (middle schools) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires supported by teachers' academic documentation. Findings indicated that teachers have a good perception of TPD and did some procedures as efforts of TPD. The total mean was 4.43, indicating that teachers' perspective was categorized as positive and very good since the range of scale of this category was 4.01-5.00 for excellent interpretation. The teachers' dominant efforts in teaching integrated skills included workshops, self-monitoring, teacher-group discussion, and action research.

EVALUATING ENGLISH PRE-SERVICE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

The English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program is a breakthrough established by the Indonesian government to produce certified professional English teachers who are trained to teach at the elementary, secondary, and preschool levels. This study aims to evaluate the implementation of the English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program (PPG) at Sanata Dharma University using a Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) evaluation model. By evaluating and identifying the advantages and disadvantages of the current English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program, this study would provide a framework that would improve the standard of English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program implementation at Sanata Dharma University. This study employed mixed methods. The study participants were 30 English pre-service teachers enrolled in the English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program in the English Department at Sanata Dharma University. A focus-group interview, an open-ended questionnaire, and a CIPP survey were used to collect data for this study which was conducted during the implementation of the English Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program. It is expected that utilizing the CIPP Model as a decision-making tool can help Sanata Dharma University improve the efficacy of the English Pre-Service PPG implementation.

Exploration on the Training Methods of English Listening and Speaking Skills for Cruise Major

This article explores training methods for listening and speaking skills in cruise professional English, aiming to improve students' English proficiency to meet the demands of the cruise industry. The paper first analyzes the current status and existing problems of cruise professional English teaching, then emphasizes the importance of listening and speaking skills in cruise work. Subsequently, this article proposes a series of innovative training methods for listening and speaking skills, including practical simulations, role-playing, and the utilization of multimedia and online resources. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified through empirical research, and corresponding teaching suggestions are provided.

Research on A Task-Based Teaching Model for Cruise Ship Professional English

This paper aims to explore a task-based teaching model for cruise professional English. By analyzing the development of the cruise industry and the current status of cruise professional English teaching, it reveals the existing problems and challenges in teaching. Based on this, a task-based teaching model is constructed, and the theoretical basis, task analysis and design, and specific implementation steps of the model are elaborated. The effectiveness of the teaching model is verified through empirical research, and targeted teaching suggestions are proposed. This study aims to provide new ideas and methods for cruise professional English teaching to improve teaching quality and effectiveness.

Pragmatic Instructions in Oral Communication in Context

There is a need to revisit and recalibrate pragmatic instructions of English teachers in the Philippines to adequately communicate the competencies required of students. Consequently, the primary purpose of this research was to look into the pragmatic instructions utilized by senior high school English teachers and whether there was a difference in the use of their pragmatic instructions when grouped according to years of service and educational attainment in one leading private senior high school in Baguio City, Philippines. By employing a survey questionnaire and a series of classroom observations of all senior high school English teachers, the researcher found that they sometimes integrated at least one from instructional pragmatic approaches and at least one from interlanguage pragmatic awareness-raising techniques, interlanguage pragmatic communicative practice techniques, interlanguage pragmatic corrective feedback techniques, and culture teaching techniques in every lesson in their Oral Communication in Context classes. Meanwhile, there was a discrepancy between the perceptions of English teachers as expressed in the questionnaire and their performance in the classroom. Although there were generally no significant differences in the application of pragmatic instructions by English teachers when grouped according to years of service and educational attainment, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that they incorporate more approaches and more techniques as they amass more years in the English teaching profession as well as when they obtain more advanced degrees in the graduate school. Besides adding to the body of literature regarding pragmatic instructions, this research endeavor also puts forward recommendations for future study.

BEYOND FALLACIES: STRENGTHS AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING PROFESSION IN INDONESIA

Proposing the idea of perception toward native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs), this research was motivated by the historical changes from the ‘fallacies’ in finding the most suitable English teachers between the two categories to discussing their potential if those teachers collaborated in team teaching. This study aimed to reveal a) the top three language skills pre-service English teachers perceived to improve if taught by either NESTs or Indonesian English teachers and b) the priority list of qualifications to meet by them. The quantitative findings from a close-ended questionnaire involving 186 pre-service English teachers in the Department of English Education at an Indonesian university indicated that the respondents tend to view NESTs as good models to teach oral-aural skills such as listening, pronunciation, and speaking. On the other hand, Indonesian English teachers could better-supporting students in teaching written skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills, which are more related to accuracy and language features. For the second objective, our results indicated that our respondents agreed that the English teaching profession should have fair treatment. Both NESTs and Indonesian English teachers are required to have relevant academic qualifications, and teaching experiences were viewed.

Investigating errors made by English as a foreign language students during online collaborative writing

This study focused on investigating common writing errors made by a group of Thai students who participated in online collaborative writing using Google Docs, and understanding their satisfaction and attitudes on this writing approach. The participants consisted 32 Thai first-year English major students who were purposively selected from their Writing I course. The researcher collected and analyzed eight argumentative pieces of writing, identifying a total of 484 errors. The most frequently occurring error areas were incomplete sentences (15.75%), spelling mistakes (13.50%), and word choice issues (12.25%), with grammatical errors being the most prevalent (72%). Following grammatical errors were lexical (12%) and mechanical errors (4%). To gauge students' satisfactions and attitudes, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed. The findings revealed that the students were highly satisfied with online collaborative writing with an average satisfaction score of 3.50. Overall, the students exhibited a positive attitude towards online collaborative writing, finding it useful due to its flexibility in terms of allowing them to work from anywhere at any time and for its ability to boost their motivation. The study's findings provide valuable insights for English teaching professionals in Thailand to consider when instructing students in writing.

In-service EFL teachers’ self-perceived receptive skills

Professional English language teachers are expected to master subject knowledge that includes not only their knowledge of English language but also their proficiency in using the language. They can self-assess their proficiency and use their assessment result as the basis for their professional growth since it can inform which areas that still need improvement. Despite the importance of teachers’ self-assessment, there has not been much research on this, especially one that investigates the teachers’ perceived receptive skills. This study, therefore, aims to explore the in-service teachers’ perception of their proficiency level, particularly of their receptive skills. This research uses a descriptive quantitative approach utilizing a survey containing 48 questions of self-perceived reading and listening skills which was distributed to in-service teachers in lower and higher secondary schools in Indonesia. This snowball survey received responses from 449 in-service teachers from various islands in Indonesia such as Java, Bali, Sumatera, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and Papua. The results show that, in general, the participants considered themselves to be able to comprehend various text types concerning personal and daily issues in both written and spoken modes. However, when it came to comprehending longer texts with more complex linguistic choices and structures in both modes, an increase in the number of participants who struggled was evident. These findings indicate that while most of the in-service teachers were confident in their receptive skills. However, while only limited numbers of in-service teachers’ facing difficulties in comprehend longer and more specialized texts containing complex linguistic resources, support is still needed. Based on these findings, this study discusses several important implications for teacher educators and English teachers in Indonesia and offers recommendations for future research in EFL contexts.

Çocuklara İngilizce’yi Kim Öğretmeli: Sınıf Öğretmeni Adaylarının Görüşleri

This study aimed to investigate pre-service classroom teachers’ beliefs about teaching English to young learners and a recently initiated course in 2021 named “Foreign Language Teaching in Primary Schools” in the initial classroom teacher education programmes in Turkey. More specifically, it explored to what extent this course was efficient to prepare them to teach English for their future careers. Adopting a mixed-method research design, the data were collected through a questionnaire (N=128) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (N=8). The findings revealed that professional English teachers were best placed to teach English to children for several reasons, including subject teachers’ high level of expertise in teaching English and participants’ low self-reported English proficiency level (A1-A2). However, participants mostly reported both in the quantitative and qualitative parts that this course had a considerable impact on their confidence to teach English at the primary level since they were familiar with various teaching techniques and activities to use for each language point in the curriculum. A number of implications are provided in the light of findings for a better implementation of English education in primary schools.

Developing Augmented Reality Learning Material in Professional English Teaching and Examining Its Effect on Academic Success

The learning materials of the new generation technologies such as augmented reality (AR) are supposed to exhibit sufficient input for the individuals who were raised with these kinds of developments in every aspect of life. Developing a new learning material is not a new issue, however, creating AR, which can be controlled and applied according to the individual learning level for professional English lessons, has crucial importance nowadays. In this direction, the aim of this study is to develop a language learning material based on AR for the university students who study Maritime or Port Management in which learning the professional English terminology or communicate, is one of the most difficult obstacle for the professional life. In this study, 4-week AR-aided application for professional English, which was developed for Maritime Faculty students (50 experimental + 50 control) according to the curriculum. Qualitative (observation and semi-structured interview forms) and quantitative (pre- & post-test) research methods were used as a mixed method research design. According to the findings, there is a significant difference between the groups in line with the academic achievement and some crucial reaction were observed in experimental group (about how effective, attractive and fun with studying AR).

Teachers’ Attributes for Professional Development

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the traits of professional teachers in general and English teachers in particular. To accomplish the purpose, the principal research question for this study is: What qualities make English teachers professionals? Therefore, this paper presents the qualities of professional English language teachers. For this, qualitative method has been adopted. Purposive sampling was chosen to get in-depth information. An unstructured interview technique was adopted to collect data with five English teachers The analytical approach I have used is inductive. The article focuses attention on the attributes of teachers which play a pivotal role in making them professionals in teaching and learning process. The professionals are ones who not only have the academic degree but also have training, knowledge of the contents, competence and confidence in performing the job. They are critical and creative. They present and publish, and love learners, community of practice and profession.

Issues of Teaching Practice in Master of English Education: Supervisors’ Perspectives

This study analyse on the issues of teaching practice through the lenses of internal supervisors. It is an attempt to explore whether the pre-service teachers were provided with adequate comments and feedbacks from their supervisors during on-campus and off-campus activities; whether the assigned tasks were appropriate for them and what challenges of teaching practice existed in Master of English Education. Phenomenological research design was adopted to carry out hits study. Ten English teachers were selected non-randomly from constituent and affiliated colleges of Tribhuvan University as a sample to elicit data to address the research questions of this study. The findings of this study showed that there were lack of proper feedbacks and comments both from their peers and supervisors; teaching practice has been taken as rituals; the pre-service teachers could be engaged professionally through proper management of teaching practice; the main root causes of being ineffective of teaching practice were lack of proper exposure of item construction and analysis, inadequate amount of remuneration to supervisors. It is concluded that the course of teaching practice under the Faculty of Education should be revamped and revisited in order to produce competent efficient and professional English teachers in both content and pedagogical techniques.

Chinese nursing postgraduates’ views on implementing outcome-oriented academic English course: a descriptive study†

Abstract Background: According to previous studies on professional English course teaching, the evaluation of course teaching was positive, but the vast majorities focus on medical English literature reading, professional English vocabulary, and professional English translation. As an alternative, the course design based on academic learning needs under the outcome-oriented education/model emphasizes the improvement of students’ comprehensive ability in oral expression, literature reading, writing, and academic communication. Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze nursing postgraduates’ opinions on learning the outcome-oriented academic English course. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. A total of 150 first-year nursing postgraduates enrolled in the “Academic Professional English for Nursing Postgraduates” course. After completing the course learning, students scanned QR codes generated by the online questionnaire and completed it anonymously within 48 h. Results: The students who participated in this course strongly believed that it “helped them strengthen their English speakability” (4.8 points), “made them more confident to participate in international academic conferences and exchanges in the future” (4.8 points), and “helped them apply English more in the nursing professional field in the future” (4.7 points). Conclusions: The implementation of outcome-oriented course teaching helps students to understand the research of foreign scholars and effectively express their own research content with English as a tool. It motivates them to continuously use English for professional and academic communication.

An Analysis of the Latest Progress in Maritime English Teaching

By analyzing the current situation and existing problems in the teaching of maritime English, this paper discusses the problems to be solved in the teaching of maritime English, and puts forward feasible methods and measures for the teaching of maritime English in Chinese colleges and universities. It shows that the traditional English teaching mode can no longer meet the needs of modern navigation, and puts forward feasible methods and measures on how to improve the professional English teaching of navigation in Chinese colleges and universities, with a view to cultivating high-quality senior sailors who meet the needs of modern navigation.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER’S INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN IN-SERVICE TEACHER POFESSIONAL PROGRAM

Innovative English instruction practices require knowledge and skills of teaching appropriately as an English teacher. This study aims to explain the development of English language teachers’ interpersonal skills in an in-service teacher professional program at one of the universities in Surabaya through lecturing/tutorials, seminars/workshops, and English instruction practices. Experienced English teachers need interpersonal skills to develop interactive communication with learners. Studies of interpersonal skills discussed pedagogical competence. This study focuses on interpersonal skills in pedagogical and professional competencies. However, this study focuses on developing English language teachers’ interpersonal skills in innovative English instruction development and practices in class. So, this study implements the qualitative method to find out the story of English language teachers’ interpersonal skills in innovative English instruction development and practices in class. The participants are English teachers in an in-service teacher professional program, investigated using an online observation to describe the development of English language teachers’ interpersonal skills at innovative English instruction practices. The results show that developing English language teachers’ interpersonal skills, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creation can increase students’ academic engagement to achieve innovative English instruction. Therefore, English teachers' capacity, capability, and innovative instructional practices can increase teachers’ knowledge, skills, and character, so they become professional English teachers. Finally, the conclusion is that developing English language teachers’ interpersonal skills can increase students’ academic engagement to achieve innovative English instruction purposes.

Corpus-based Research on Marine Electrical and Electronic Professional English Translation Teaching

Marine Electrical and Electronic Professional English (ESP) is a core course for marine electrical and electronic engineering in maritime colleges and universities, and a required subject for the Certificate of Competency of Marine ETO (Marine Electro-technical Officers) in sea going ships. This paper establishes a 1 million word corpus of marine electrical and electronic English, which represents this particular professional English. The author applies this corpus to translation teaching: professional vocabulary is retrieved by computer, various translations and usages of professional vocabulary are explained in detail according to the contextual adaptation theory. Different original English materials about the same content can be retrieved through the corpus, and students can learn translation by comparison.

EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections on Different Aspects of Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A Preliminary Qualitative Case Study

This qualitative investigation addresses the following aspects of Saudi pre-service English as a foreign language teachers: their perceptions of and attitudes toward their English proficiency and teaching competence; their teaching approaches; the motivating and deterring factors when choosing a teaching career; the problems they encountered; and suggestions to improve the English teaching profession. Eight participants who registered for a teaching practicum course at the university and met particular grade point average thresholds (from “passable” to “excellent”) were recruited. After the semester, the participants were asked four questions addressing the aspects mentioned earlier. The results indicate that regardless of gender, the higher participants’ grade point average, the more negative their perceptions and attitudes and, therefore, the greater their determination to avoid the profession. This study provides numerous suggestions for researchers on how to address these limitations and expand the investigation of this topic.

Questioning the Dominance of Native-English Teachers in ELT Profession

It is often assumed that native-English teachers are the best teachers in the teaching of English. This results in the preference towards native-English teachers and the isolation of non-native English teachers when it comes to English teaching profession. This assumption should not be perpetuated. English teaching researches have shown that native-English teachers are not always the ideal teachers in the teaching of English. The findings of the researches state that non-native English teachers have more advantages compared to the native ones especially in the context of English as an international language where English can no longer be associated with only English-speaking countries. This paper discusses the issue of the preference towards native-English teachers and the isolation of non-native English teachers.

THE CHALLENGES OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS: A REFLECTION OF THEIR TEACHING PRACTICUM

This research was conducted to explore some of the probable issues encountered by pre-service English teachers when conducting teaching practicum (PPL) activities at schools. The research focuses on (1) how do the practitioners practice their language skills (English) and pedagogical competencies to teach at schools while conducting their teaching practicum? (2) what obstacles or challenges do they encounter during PPL at schools? The researcher employed questionnaires and interviews involving PPL practitioners, teachers and field supervisors to explore the problems faced by the practitioners. The research findings reveal that there are several potential obstacles encountered by practitioners while conducting PPL at schools. The interesting Issues revealed problems accentuating the teaching planning process, pre-teaching activities, core activities and post-teaching activities. The results of this study are indeed valuable for pre-service English teachers as evaluative paces to improve their teaching competencies and English language skills in carrying out PPL activities at schools to be professional English teachers.

Local English teachers’ voices from a marginalized lens: Inequality practices and identity construction in the workplace

This article reports on a narrative case study that showcases the local English teachers’ perceived inequality practices and identity construction in Indonesia’s micro-reality context of a private language school domain. Grounded in the social theory of power, privilege, and positional identities, three synchronous online interviews were conducted to explore the LETs voices about what it means to experience the equality of rights and obligations in the workplace. As a result, the study revealed four inequality issues: (1) dissatisfaction with the payroll system, (2) the representation of gender and race in promotional endorsement, (3) the call for decolonizing pedagogy in ELT materials and resources, and (4) perceived identity as legitimate and qualified English teachers. Regarding the workload capacity and role as professional English teachers, they recognized that they deserve equal treatment as their native counterparts. However, this type of discrimination will further widen the gap between LETs and NESTs dichotomy and impede the construction of language teacher identity. This study suggests exploring dedicated strategies to develop information literacy skills for school principals, parents, teachers, students, and policymakers. This study will also contribute to the growth of critically oriented literature and scholarship on teacher identity and critical anti-racist language teaching pedagogy.