Language Teaching Purposes Research Articles

Rejuvenation of the Arabic Learning Paradigm: Considering Richard Rorty's Idea as an Alternative Education Discourse

The purpose of this study is to show the educational aspects of Richard Rorty's thought that are linked to Arabic language education. This research is a type of document analysis that identifies and selects data in the form of text, then checks, sorts and evaluates the core concepts of Rorty's thinking systematically to be able to understand and interpret it in the context of learning Arabic. The research method used is literature research. Data analysis is carried out through three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawn/verification. The results of the study show that Rorty's Paradigm of Thinking touches on several important aspects about the purpose and method of language teaching. In Rorty's view, the function of language as a means of communication, Rorty emphasizes the role of language as a tool for social interaction and conveying meaning. In language education, Rorty's educational paradigm challenges an approach that focuses on teaching rigid and normative grammar. In addition, he emphasized the importance of education as a social construction process where students not only learn language, but also develop their perspective on the world and the way they interact with others. Thus, Rorty's thinking in relation to language education emphasizes creativity, social and cultural context, as well as a growing understanding of language and meaning.

Using Rap Songs in EFL Classrooms

The use of rap songs in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to young adult learners through different approaches is noteworthy to investigate due to their popularity and rich authentic language. Although the use of rap songs is exemplified and used in ESL (English as a second language) contexts, teaching English through rap songs is a topic that has not been investigated thoroughly within the Turkish EFL context yet. This may be due to the fact that rap songs also contain negative use of language and themes that are not suitable for educational use. Therefore, as a defense for the educational value of rap songs for EFL teaching, this review study focuses on reasons for using rap songs in teaching EFL contexts based on the literature. Besides, to provide practical ideas for the effective use of rap songs in teaching English to adult EFL learners, the following issues are addressed: (1) Selection criteria for finding suitable rap songs for language teaching purposes, (2) Practical suggestions to design engaging rap song-based lessons for different proficiency levels, (3) Samples of extracurricular activities that can be applied in English language preparatory programs. Keywords: Rap songs, songs in ELT, teaching young adults.

An Evaluative Review of Mondly: A Mobile Language Learning Application

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning is a thriving research area in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Hand-held devices such as smartphones are increasingly and widely being used for second language teaching and learning purposes nowadays. With the great variety of language learning applications entering a competitive market comes a need for studies to evaluate these applications critically so that teachers and learners can choose wisely. The present study aims to evaluate a language learning application called Mondly through a framework proposed by Reinders and Pegrum (2016). The evaluation was carried out by six experienced English language instructors. The results indicate that although the app suffers from a number of weak points, it can be particularly beneficial for beginner second language learners.

Реализация принципа обучения на речевых образцах в профильно-ориентированной иноязычной подготовке

One of the leading special methodological principles of professionally-oriented foreign language training — the principle of teaching based on speech patterns of a specific subject area — is highlighted. A theoretical analysis of the essence of this principle, its place and role in the system of principles of professionally-oriented foreign language teaching is presented, along with an attempt to practically implement this principle in the content of English language teaching for the subject area “Information Technology”. To achieve the goal: 1) the concept and essence of speech patterns in a specific professional field are specified; 2) similarities and differences in the use of the terms “speech pattern”, “speech template”, “speech cliché” are analyzed; 3) specific conditions for the implementation of the principle in practical pedagogical activities in professionally-oriented foreign language classes are determined; 4) the sequence of methodological and educational actions during foreign language training based on speech patterns of a specific subject area is described; 5) a practical implementation option of the principle for the purposes of professionally-oriented foreign language teaching for students in the field of information technology is proposed. The study concludes that the quality of such foreign language training indicators as visibility, authenticity, time efficiency, functionality, and complexity (multi-aspect nature) is improved in the process of forming professionally-oriented speech skills and developing students’ speech abilities.

Biblical Phraseological Units and Proverbs in Modern Sociocultural Context: Dictionary Representation

The article explores issues related to the lexicographic development of biblical proverbs and phraseological units, which are typically represented in dictionaries solely in their canonical form, without taking into account the peculiarities of their contemporary usage. The aim of the research is to develop a dictionary concept that, alongside traditional forms, reflects the structural and semantic transformations of biblicisms in the media space and live communication. Phraseological units and proverbs, selected from biblical dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as those documented in internet forums, chats, and blogs (from 2013 to 2023), and recorded in spoken language, have become the subject of structural-semantic, componential, and contextual analysis prior to their lexicographic treatment. Special attention is paid to transformational mechanisms of phonetic mimicry and playful variants of phraseological units and proverbs created on this basis. During lexicographic modeling, parameters for an innovative dictionary entry combining elements characteristic of explanatory and axiological dictionaries have been developed. The implementation of the developed parametric model is demonstrated using the example of the proverb ‘Eyes are the mirror of the soul.’ It is emphasized that the proposed lexicographic concept will allow for the reflection of dynamic processes affecting the corpus of biblicisms in their sociocultural context, prediction of trends in this field, and utilization of dictionary materials for language teaching purposes.

Can linguists distinguish between ChatGPT/AI and human writing?: A study of research ethics and academic publishing

There has been considerable intrigue surrounding the use of Large Language Model powered AI chatbots such as ChatGPT in research, educational contexts, and beyond. However, most studies have explored such tools’ general capabilities and applications for language teaching purposes. The current study advances this discussion to examine issues pertaining to human judgements, accuracy, and research ethics. Specifically, we investigate: 1) the extent to which linguists/reviewers from top journals can distinguish AI- from human-generated writing, 2) what the basis of reviewers’ decisions are, and 3) the extent to which editors of top Applied Linguistics journals believe AI tools are ethical for research purposes. In the study, reviewers (N = 72) completed a judgement task involving AI- and human-generated research abstracts, and several reviewers participated in follow-up interviews to explain their rationales. Similarly, editors (N = 27) completed a survey and interviews to discuss their beliefs. Findings suggest that despite employing multiple rationales to judge texts, reviewers were largely unsuccessful in identifying AI versus human writing, with an overall positive identification rate of only 38.9%. Additionally, many editors believed there are ethical uses of AI tools for facilitating research processes, yet some disagreed. Future research directions are discussed involving AI tools and academic publishing.

Foundations for English for specific purposes: improving student’s vocabulary

The article deals with the problem of development of lexical skills at the lessons of English language and it gives an overview of the experience of teaching General English course as a foundation English course for specific purposes to the first-year Elementary level students of International Information Technology University (IITU). This academic year, there were about 778 students who were enrolled to the General English Elementary course. Students of IITU have to study General English and Academic English courses before studying “English for Specific Purposes” courses in order to improve their levels of English. As we know, the purpose of English language teaching is the ability to communicate. In this process, learning vocabulary plays a vital role in all language skills. Learners cannot understand others or express their own ideas without enough vocabulary. Accordingly, we will outline some activities, tools for teaching vocabulary in this work. The article encompasses the activities for improving the vocabulary of learners. The activities were used in teaching English language to the first-year Elementary level students at International Information Technology University, Almaty. Forty students studied online for four weeks. They studied online using Microsoft Teams, Moodle and other platforms. Students worked with different textbooks which were listed in the syllabus. The aim of this article is to focus on improving students’ vocabulary skill and analyzing what results have been achieved in four weeks. For this purpose, every week students had to work with new vocabulary topics which were indicated in the academic program. As a result, most students have achieved the aim of the syllabus and students were able to recognize familiar words, interpret and understand authentic oral speech on the studied topics and express their opinion on them

APPLICATION OF AR-TECHNOLOGIES FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF INDEPENDENT WORK

Statement of the problem. The article investigates the problem of AR-technologies application in foreign language teaching at university. Referring to the research of Russian and foreign scientists such as N. Howe, A.P. Avramenko, E.N. Solovovа, O.G. Starodubcevа, V.N. Taran, E.I. Passov and others, the authors develop a methodology for the formation of lexical competence through AR technologies in the organization of independent work of students of non-linguistic specialties. Results. The experiment was conducted on the basis of Chelyabinsk State University. The testees were the 1-st year students of the Math Faculty studying at Computer Security 10.05.01 specialty. 42 students took part in the experiment. The experiment lasted for one semester. We introduced in the educational process the applications with AR-functions such as Tik-Tok, Housecraft, and a social network messenger. As a result, an algorithm for choosing an AR-application was developed, and a methodology for the formation of lexical competence using AR-technologies was tested when organizing students' independent work. Conclusion. After conducting experimental and search work, we have figured out that the formation of lexical competence in the organization of independent work of students studying a foreign language with the AR-technologies is quite successful. We have found that AR-technologies allow leveling a number of communication barriers that students face when learning a foreign language. A universal algorithm for choosing an augmented reality application was developed to introduce it into the teaching process of any discipline. In addition, the methodology for working with AR-applications in foreign language classes was tested, positive results and good feedback from students were obtained. The advantages of AR-technologies for the purposes of foreign language teaching are described.

Yabancı Dil Olarak Türkçe Dinleme ve Konuşma Becerilerinin Gelişiminde Filmlerin Kullanımı

The main purpose of foreign language teaching is communication and socialization. Listening and speaking skills come to the fore compared to reading and writing in ensuring communication and socialization. As no production takes place without raw materials, no speaking occurs without listening. Films are one of the most essential materials enabling the development of listening and speaking skills. The purpose of this research is to explain how teachers of Turkish as a foreign language should use films to contribute to the development of their students' speaking and listening skills. In this study, the data was obtained through document review, which is one of the methods of qualitative data collection. It has been concluded that films, which appeal to more than one sense, are fun, interesting and mirror the everyday language, are effective in providing both motivation and continuity of linguistic messages in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. This indirectly supports the development of listening and speaking skills. Key Words: teaching Turkish as a foreign language, listening and speaking skills, material, film.

A Study on the Effectiveness of College English Teaching Based on Content-Based Instruction Teaching Philosophy.

With the development of world globalization, English plays an increasingly important role. English is the international language used in foreign communication, so English learning has become more and more important. Therefore, the innovation and research of College English teaching has become a hot spot in the field of education. Relevant research results are also constantly updated, but there are no ideas and methods that can adapt to the actual teaching. To improve students’ English level and cultivate excellent English talents for the development of the country, the CBI teaching concept aims to completely combine language learning with subject learning, so as to get rid of the artificial separation between language teaching and subject teaching in most educational backgrounds. This study constructs and implements the college English teaching model based on CBI teaching concept from an empirical perspective. In the teaching, it focuses on the theme content that students are interested in. Teachers take explaining the theme content as a means, use content teaching to drive language teaching, and realize the purpose of language teaching. The experimental class adopts CBI teaching concept, the blank class adopts ordinary teaching methods, and the control class adopts task-based teaching concept. Through one semester of teaching, the teaching effect of three classes is evaluated. Under the evaluation of teachers, the full score of CBI teaching effectiveness is 66. Under the evaluation of students, the full score of CBI teaching effectiveness is 64, which is the highest. This shows that the effectiveness of teaching under CBI is higher than task-based teaching and general teaching. The results showed that the average score of the pretest control class was the highest, the average score of the middle test experimental class was the highest, an increase of 4.7 points, and the average score of the post-test experimental class was the highest, an increase of 112.2 points, whereas the scores of the control group and the blank group were 108.7 and 104.3 points, respectively. This shows that the learning effect of CBI teaching concept is higher than task-based teaching and general teaching. Therefore, college English teaching based on CBI teaching concept has high effect, can improve students’ English knowledge and ability, and can be promoted in college English teaching.

The English Text Types Applied In English Textbooks For Students of Islamic Education Department

This research aims at describing the English text types applied in English Textbooks for students of Islamic Education Department. The teaching must be relevant with the students� needs and the purpose of language teaching. One of the purposes is for understanding the different text types. Moreover, the college students should be in epistemic level. In this level, they are expected to be able to use English in transforming knowledge. The findings reported that there are ten text types applied in the textbooks. The dominant text is Information Report while the least is News Item. Almost the materials contain information related to Islamic knowledge. It also integrates the knowledge of how to use language for different purposes and functions, how to produce and understand different text types, and what the common linguistic features of each text type.

Multicultural Educational Approach Influence on Student’s Development

Recognition of the need to prepare a person for integrating into a multicultural society has led to the problem of organizing educational activities, which provide mastering both languages and cultures, cultural awareness and readiness for intercultural communication, based on the interest in foreign culture and identity of a person as a bearer of own national culture. University educational activities aimed at solving the task of developing personal and professional qualities of a student, who acts as a citizen of their state, meets the social needs and requirements. The paper aims at exploring the specific features of educational activities based on language-and-culture content. The paper employs theoretical and comparative analysis of research describing the basic ideas of teaching foreign languages and cultures as well as studies on personal development in multicultural space. The paper identifies the specific features of educational activities, organized on the basis of language-and-culture content to influence a student as a representative of the nation. One of the major findings is that the teacher’s actions are related to the methods used to expose students to foreign culture in the teacher-led and out-of-class activities. The authors describe the organized educational activities which provide language-and-culture content at different stages of foreign language teaching. In sum, the authors conclude that the main characteristics of educational activities – complexity and integrity; relation to the principle of dialogue between cultures – are determined by the purposes of foreign language teaching and culture, and by the tasks of keeping and developing the students’ features.

Chinese Culture Education in College Chinese Teaching Based on Big Data

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">With the advancement of society and the increase of computer, network and digital media technology, big data technology has become an indispensable part of the modern service industry. Big data technology has been developed in all aspects of the education industry, and the proportion of the value of products and services created has gradually increased. Big data plays an important role in technology in language teaching and other aspects. This article mainly introduces the research of Chinese teaching reform based on the era of big data. This article uses the research of Chinese culture education in Chinese teaching in colleges and universities based on big data, starting from the two aspects of Chinese teaching and Chinese culture, and rationally analyzes the feasibility of Chinese teaching reform. From the labor market in our country, the demand for Chinese culture talents is concentrated on applied talents, but the purpose of language teaching in many schools is mostly in traditional research-based teaching, resulting in a decline in the quality of education, and it is difficult to meet the market's demand for applied talents in Chinese culture and classroom reforms. It is the main body that determines the course content and teaching mode. The experimental results of this paper show that based on the research of Chinese culture education in Chinese teaching in the era of big data, the efficiency of Chinese teaching has increased by 18%. The current situation of Chinese teaching reform in the era of big data and the limitations of research are important to the cultivation of Chinese culture in the era of big data. Methods and approaches are analyzed, discussed and summarized so as to enrich the academic research results.</span>

The Educational Purpose of Language Teaching at University: Giving Voice to Native Communities

This paper reports the findings of a case study carried out in an English for specific purposes class with student tour guides at an Argentinean university. The main objective of this research project was to analyse how the teaching practices in the English language classes favoured intercultural exchanges. Data were gathered through document analysis, surveys, and interviews with students and with core-subject professors. Results were analysed qualitatively. We conclude that we must foster a friendly and safe learning environment to give voice to learners from native communities so that they can express their own identities and thus give way to enriching intercultural dialogue.

How suitable are movie reviews for use as ESL/EFL teaching and reading materials?

Finding adequate and interesting content is a challenge teachers and writers of foreign language learning materials frequently come across. In this paper, we evaluate how suitable, vocabulary-wise, movie reviews are for English language teaching and learning purposes. Employing the method of lexical frequency profiling, we study a 1.3-million-word corpus of American movie reviews, and find that a knowledge of about 5,000 words is needed to achieve the minimum reading comprehension level (at 95%-vocabulary coverage), whereas as many as 13,000 words are needed for reaching the ideal reading threshold (98%-vocabulary coverage). We conclude that, non-adapted, movie reviews as a genre are only suitable for advanced learners. In addition, the study shows that movie reviews are not an excellent source of formal vocabulary, but are an excellent source of opinion vocabulary, and we therefore suggest that the teaching and learning target in terms of vocabulary for movie reviews in ESL/EFL contexts should be on positive and negative words expressing opinion.

Importance and Problems of Oral Teaching in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

This study reviews the importance of oral teaching in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The oral teaching of the primary stage of Chinese as a foreign language has different characteristics and properties from other languages and other stages of learning in terms of the nature of the subject and the stage of learning. The main goal of oral teaching is to improve students’ oral communication skills. The training of second language teaching skills is generally divided into listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. The purpose of language teaching is to cultivate students’ ability to communicate in the language they have learned. This study introduces the problems that should be paid attention to in the primary stage of oral teaching, which is helpful in teaching oral Chinese as a foreign language. Teaching Chinese as a foreign language should take the cultivation of learners’ language communication skills as the main goal, which has become a consensus among people. Among the many courses of Chinese as a foreign language, oral course can be regarded as the most flexible and directly related to the actual communicative ability of the training language. Speaking class provides students with speaking opportunities, such that students can master spoken words, spoken grammar and spoken expression patterns; fully mobilise the language information accumulated in the brain memory bank for communication; and move up from language learning as soon as possible The ‘plateau area’ in China is a problem that teachers of oral English classes need to explore. This study aims to improve the effect of oral Chinese teaching in the primary stage of teaching as a foreign language and achieve the expected teaching goals. This study also discusses this issue from the principles of specific teaching implementation.

The Improving Students’ Vocabularies Using Newspapers as an Authentic Materials

Authentic material is the material that the contents and the language used is close to the students’ real life. Authentic materials have not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching and this easily differentiates it from textbook materials. In addition, the use of authentic materials is expected to bring students in direct contact with reality so that students are interested in the vocabulary learning process. This research aims to find out the use of the authentic materials; English newspapers in teaching vocabulary. The participants of this research are the eleventh grader of Muhammadiyah 2 Genteng Senior High School which consists of 31 students. The design of this research is classroom action research. There are two kinds of data collected by the researcher; primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected from the students’ observation, and vocabulary test, while the secondary data were collected from the result of interview, and documentation. In this research, the researcher found that in the first meeting, the students’ participation was 65% and in the second meeting was 84%. Moreover, the students’ vocabulary scores have improved from 61.29% to 87.097%. It can be concluded that the use of the authentic materials; English newspapers can improve the eleventh grade students’ vocabulary achievement. &#x0D; Keywords: Authentic Materials, Vocabulary, Newspapers

Exploring language teachers’ lesson planning for corpus-based language teaching: a focus on developing TPACK for corpora and DDL

The use of corpora for the purposes of language teaching and learning, commonly known as “data-driven learning” (DDL), is gaining popularity across a range of CALL contexts. However, how trainee teachers attempt to develop the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) to integrate corpus tools and DDL pedagogy into classroom practice has received little attention from a language teacher education perspective. This qualitative study focuses on Indonesian pre-service secondary school teachers’ initial attempts to integrate corpus consultation activities into EFL lesson plans following an extensive DDL training regimen, including a short private online DDL training course, live online DDL lesson planning workshops, and a DDL expert’s detailed suggestions on integrating corpora into lesson planning practice. Trainees then produced a sample lesson plan including elements of student-led corpus consultation, which was rated by teacher educators for the level and ‘fit’ of TPACK displayed within the lessons’ objectives, target language focus, and teaching and learning activity instructions. We analyse elements of these lesson plans for the corpus-based activities adopted, while discussing elements of the plans that represent low, medium and high levels of TPACK for DDL. We conclude with the implications facing teacher educators in the Indonesian context and beyond regarding how DDL may successfully be integrated into classroom practice at the lesson planning level. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.1995001 .

DEFINITION OF “AUTHENTICITY” AND AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN THE CONTEXT OF EFL TEACHING

The article deals with various definitions of authentic materials. Authentic materials are defined as language samples that are created by native speakers for native speakers of the language. Another similar opinion comes that authentic materials are not for language teaching purposes, but designed texts used for real life use for interactional and transactional purposes. Authentic materials were used for native speaker only, but some teachers used it for teaching purposes. The development of ELT finally places the authentic materials not only for native but also for EFL as their learning media. Authentic materials as printed materials, which are used in classroom in the same way they would be used in real life. For this development of authentic materials use, it is also added that authentic materials in classroom are stretches of real language, produced by real speakers or writers for real audiences and designed to convey real message.

Existing EFL Pedagogies in Thai Higher Education: Views from Thai University Lecturers

Since English is extensively used among linguacultural users to access life opportunities, it has become a requisite foreign language in the Thai educational system. To prepare Thai learners for this new changing role of English and reduce English Language Teaching dependency on the native English variety, this study aimed to explore English lecturers’ voices in Thai universities on existing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pedagogies at the Thai tertiary level with the research question: how do English lecturers in Thai universities perceive EFL in Thai universities? Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 Thai EFL university lecturers selected from ten different universities in Thailand and analyzed using content analysis. The finding reveals that EFL-oriented pedagogy plays a dominant role in English language teaching (ELT) education in Thai classrooms, illustrating three main salient themes from the study: (1) EFL pedagogies; (2) EFL materials; and (3) EFL curriculums. The result shows that the pedagogy is less responsive in the changing roles of English use and its widespread worldwide, especially among diverse linguacultural interlocutors. Hence, English university lecturers should reconsider, adjust, and made more practical glocal changes in English language teaching for the purpose of language teaching, language planning and predicting language change.