ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Conceptualizing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the EFL Context: Ethnographic Experiences of CELTA and Non-CELTA Holders
Author: Alofi, Rahaf A.
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Communicative Competence (Languages),Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Language Teachers,Teacher Certification,Training Methods,Foreign Countries,Postsecondary Education,Program Implementation,Definitions,Teacher Role,Vignettes

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has become the favourite teaching approach of many English teachers because of its focus on communication (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). A number of researchers have investigated EFL teachers' perceptions and implementation of CLT in Saudi tertiary level education. Some researchers reported on how CELTA training affects EFL teachers' perceptions and implementation of CLT. However, there is a gap in the literature with regard to the lived experiences of how non-native English speaker teachers (NNESTs) who do or do not have a CELTA qualification understand and apply CLT in Saudi tertiary level EFL education. Therefore, this mixed-methods ethnographic research focuses on filling this gap. Data were collected through three research tools, namely a survey, vignettes and classroom observations. All the participants were teaching EFL at the Saudi tertiary level. Twenty-six CELTA holders and forty-four non-CELTA holders participated in the survey about their perceptions and implementation of CLT. Four CELTA holders and three non-CELTA holders wrote a number of vignettes on how they conceptualize and apply CLT. Classroom observations were conducted for two CELTA holders and two non-CELTA holders. The statistical survey data were analysed using SPSS, and the vignettes and classroom observations were examined thematically. The findings revealed that both CELTA and non-CELTA holders have a reasonable understanding of CLT. However, they also showed that the teachers only implement CLT to some extent, suggesting that more training on applying communicative activities and group- and pairwork is needed in EFL classrooms.
Insights from a Survey into Chinese University Graduates&apos; Perceptions toward University-Level English Courses
Author: Wei, Li-Wei
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Needs Assessment,Undergraduate Students,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Employment Opportunities,College Graduates,Foreign Countries,Education Work Relationship,Instructional Design,Futures (of Society),Teaching Methods,Language Skills,Language Proficiency,International Education,English for Special Purposes

Needs analysis guides course and curriculum design. In addition to mandatory courses, it is necessary for intensive language schools and institutes. Recent university graduates in China are increasingly enrolling in language training at public and private language schools to hone their communication abilities. On the other hand, English courses as the workplace prerequisites for Chinese university graduates have been scientifically researched and found to be exceedingly rare. The research's fundamental premise serves that there is a substantial link between the demands of Chinese recent graduates and university English course design. The aim of this research is to assess the goals, needs, and perceived utility of university English courses among recent on-the-job Chinese graduates over an eight-month period. After evaluating the questionnaire and interview replies, it was concluded that these Chinese young graduates in China had similar learning demands, with listening and speaking skills taking primacy. Additionally, various characteristics were discovered that show why an English course designed for future workplace purposes is advantageous to university students. The results are examined in terms of their pedagogical importance for curriculum creation and classroom practice in English courses at the university.
Noun Phrase Complexity in Academic Writing: A Comparison of Research Proposals Written by Chinese EFL and Malaysian ESL Postgraduates
Author: Peng, Yao
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Phrase Structure,Academic Language,Writing (Composition),Native Language,Graduate Students,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Foreign Students,Form Classes (Languages),Language Usage,Nouns,Individualized Instruction,Research Proposals,Contrastive Linguistics

An increasing body of scholars have investigated noun phrase complexity in L2 English writing from varied perspectives, but few of them focus on the differences of the English writing produced by EFLs and ESLs. Thus, the study explored how three international postgraduates from China and three local Malaysian postgraduates in a top university of Malaysia differ in noun modification. The noun modifiers in their research proposals were coded, categorized, counted, and compared. Based on the findings, the EFLs used premodifiers more frequently than the other group, especially for attributive adjectives and nouns as premodifiers, while the ESLs made more frequent use of advanced postmodifiers, including prepositions other than 'of' as postmodifiers to express both concrete/locative meanings and abstract meanings, and multiple prepositional phrases with levels of embedding. The findings highlighted the need to implement explicit individualized instruction for the students with different L1 backgrounds but within the same classroom.
Levels of Enjoyment in Class Are Closely Related to Improved English Proficiency
Author: Inada, Takako
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Language Proficiency,Outcomes of Education,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Age Differences,Gender Differences,Language Tests,Language Usage,Anxiety,Language Teachers,Undergraduate Students,Scores,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries,Japanese,Native Language,Teaching Methods,Communicative Competence (Languages),Self Esteem,Learning Motivation

This study investigated the factors, such as students' foreign language enjoyment, their foreign language classroom anxiety, the teacher's language choice (English-only instruction versus English instruction with limited legitimate Japanese support), and demographics that affect improvement in English proficiency in EFL communicative classes. Ninety-three college students in Japan participated in this research, for which they completed a questionnaire after the seventh lesson of 14 total lessons during a semester. In addition to t-tests, a stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was performed using the dependent variable of the change in every student's scores between the midterm and the final examination and six independent variables: age, gender, nationality, the teacher's language choice, anxiety levels, and enjoyment levels. The results reveal that higher levels of enjoyment in class are significantly correlated with improvement in students' English proficiency. The present study suggests that enjoyment levels, instead of anxiety levels, affect improvement in students' English proficiency regardless of teachers' language choices. Therefore, it is important for teachers to provide classes that are enjoyable for students by motivating and providing the students with activities in which they will succeed, thereby ensuring their self-confidence.
Reading Better?: Enhancing Thai EFL Secondary School Students&apos; Reading Comprehension Abilities with the Use of Graphic Organizers
Author: Imsa-ard, Pariwat
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Instructional Materials,Reading Comprehension,Secondary School Students,Foreign Countries,Reading Tests,Public Schools,Instructional Effectiveness,Scores,Comparative Analysis,Teaching Methods,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Student Attitudes

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of utilizing graphic organizers to enhance Thai EFL students' reading comprehension abilities and their opinions regarding using graphic organizers for reading comprehension. To gather information from sixty-four upper secondary school students at a public school in Bangkok, this research study used 1) instructional instruments: ten reading passages from a coursebook and ten graphic organizers designed by the researcher; and 2) research instruments: two English reading comprehension tests with multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions, and focus-group interviews about students' opinions toward English reading instruction using graphic organizers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including mean scores, normalized gains, standard deviations, and inferential statistics, namely the dependent t-test and Cohen's d. The results indicated that the mean score on the reading comprehension post-test was significantly higher than the mean score on the pre-test at the 0.05 level of significance, and the experimental group acquired a higher score (M=87.00, SD=10.55) than the control group (M=51.18, SD=12.127) with the effect size of 0.846. Students exhibited a favorable opinion toward English reading instruction employing graphic organizers; and the average normalized gain was in the high gain range, g&gt; = 0.78. Additionally, this research established that English reading instruction employing graphic organizers benefited students with low reading abilities and improved their abilities to comprehend what they read. The findings of this study provide potential avenues for improving students' reading comprehension.
Saudi EFL Primary School Teachers&apos; and Parents&apos; Perceptions of Online Assessment during COVID-19 Pandemic
Author: Almansour, Shaden
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Language Teachers,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Elementary School Students,COVID-19,Pandemics,Computer Assisted Testing,Distance Education,Student Attitudes,Parent Attitudes,Educational Change,Likert Scales,Social Media,Computer Software,Test Format,Language Tests,Cheating,Information Technology,Barriers,Teacher Attitudes

Since March 2020, the world has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in sudden school closures and a rapid transition from traditional face-to-face education to a new model of online learning and assessment. The present study analyzes two cohorts--primary-school EFL teachers and students' parents--regarding the perceptions they have had and the challenges they have faced when assessing young EFL learners online during COVID-19. A specific aim of the study is to identify primary-school EFL teachers' perceptions of the online methods used in assessing young EFL learners in the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia. The research follows a quantitative method involving a convenience-sampling method for the selection of the study's participants. A total of 34 primary-school EFL teachers and 20 parents of young learners who are studying online in primary public schools were the main participants of the study. The researcher used a survey-based method involving a five-point Likert scale to collect data from the participants. The surveys were distributed online via the social-media application WhatsApp. The statistically analyzed responses yielded two types of descriptive statistics: frequencies, and percentages. The results show that both the teachers and the parents perceived online assessments as more convenient, fun and interactive than traditional paper-based assessments. Furthermore, both the teachers and the parents associated online assessments with serious challenges, such as cheating and technical problems. And teachers held positive views of various online methods and techniques for the assessment of young EFL learners.
Syllabus Development on Writing English News Stories for Kasetsart University Students, Thailand
Author: Srinon, Udomkrit
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Course Descriptions,News Reporting,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Writing (Composition),Writing Instruction,Majors (Students),Familiarity,Textbooks,Literary Genres,Teaching Methods,Linguistics,Journalism,Undergraduate Students,Journalism Education,Foreign Countries

An English syllabus was developed on writing English news stories for the English for Journalism course in the second semester of the 2014 academic year at Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen campus, Thailand. The study focused on the development of material for writing hard-news and feature stories. The sample consisted of 154 students who had majored in English. The development and analysis of the syllabus for the course used a book titled &quot;English News: Reading and Writing&quot; developed by Peking University Press (2008). The analysis implemented current news stories in the course for their social and cultural contexts. The findings indicated that the designed curriculum worked well to some degree but that it was limited by the students' lack of familiarity with writing news stories. We suggest various actions: 1) to further develop students' writing ability, the lecturer should integrate more comprehensible inputs and material apart from those in the book; and 2) the news input material could be sourced from current news stories around the world with particular attention to Appraisal Framework (Martin &amp; White, 2005) and the learning cycle proposed by the Sydney genre-based school (Martin &amp; Rose, 1994), which are the main approaches under systemic functional linguistics, focusing on metafunctions (field, mode, tenor), the context of situation and the context of culture.
The Richness of English Language during COVID-19 Pandemic: Selected Words and Expressions That Can Be Taught to EFL Students at the Colleges of Health Science and Colleges of Nursing in KSA and Kuwait
Author: Alrahaili, Musaad
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Allied Health Occupations Education,Nursing Education,Foreign Countries,Vocabulary,English for Special Purposes,Semitic Languages,Dictionaries,Information Technology,Figurative Language

The COVID-19 crisis has made the years 2020 and 2021 an unpolitical and spiritual crisis. It has affected virtually everybody in the world and introduced a new normal. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been hooked on consuming news media to follow the development of this unprecedented disease. Subsequently, a new language with vocabulary, expressions, and metaphors has appeared in various languages, including English and Arabic. Dictionaries have added new words in English and revised others; they are now fully integrated into our everyday vocabularies. COVID-19 has changed the English language in many ways: it has brought previously obscure medical words to the forefront of everyday speech, made terms related to social isolation more common, and witnessed a shift in meaning in other terms. As linguists, researchers, and teachers gradually return to their classrooms next term (Spring, 2022) we undertook this study to identify 57 English terms, expressions, and metaphors that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, either in English-speaking countries or Arabic-speaking countries where English is a first or second language. We deemed the new terminologies necessary for EFL learners in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) countries. It can serve the purpose of making a list of these words and expressions to be taught to our EFL students at colleges of nursing and health science in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or any other equivalent colleges in the Arab World. The terms and expressions came from articles, magazines, and English and Arabic dictionaries published during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Effect of Inquiry-Based Learning Strategy on Developing Saudi Students&apos; Meta-Cognitive Reading Comprehension Skills
Author: Alshammari, Reem Fuhaid
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Inquiry,Active Learning,Metacognition,Pretests Posttests,Reading Comprehension,Undergraduate Students,Comparative Analysis,Learning Strategies,Reading Tests,Scores,Teaching Methods,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language)

The main aim of the present study is to develop first year university students' meta-cognitive reading comprehension using inquiry-based learning strategy. Subjects of the study were 106 (53 males, 53 females) first year university students enrolled in two classrooms at colleges representing urban and sub-urban areas in Shaqra University. The present study adopted a quasi-experimental design with one-group. The results of present study showed that first year university students should have the following reading comprehension skills: guessing, description, analyzing and identifying the main idea. Accordingly, the suggested strategy was designed and used to develop these identified meta-cognitive reading comprehension skills. A reading comprehension test, based on the identified skills, was designed and used as a pretest and posttest. Findings of the present study showed that there were statistical differences between the students' mean score on the pretest and posttest in favor of the posttest, and there were statistical differences between the students' mean score on the posttest at the level of 0.05. This can be attributed to the effectiveness of using the inquiry-based learning strategy in developing students' meta-cognitive reading comprehension skills at the university stage.
A Review of Threshold Concepts Research in Language Teacher Education
Author: Sandoval-Cruz, Rosa Isela
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Teachers,Teacher Education,Fundamental Concepts,Interlanguage,Classroom Communication,Teacher Effectiveness,Language Usage,Personal Autonomy,Grammar,Foreign Countries,Educational Research,Action Research,Research Design

The goal of this paper is to introduce an emerging theoretical lens and strand of research in the field of language teacher education, that of threshold concepts (TCs). We do so by a) defining and explaining the construct of TCs itself, b) systematically reviewing the small body of literature that has explicitly used a TC lens to research language teacher education and c) discussing the implications of using this construct for research and practice. To find and select papers, we used a combination of inductive and deductive searches with Scopus, Google Scholar, and Research Gate. Papers not using TCs as an explicit theoretical lens were excluded. The review of the literature shows that 5 threshold concepts have been identified so far in language teacher education: interlanguage, effective teacher talk, real language use, fostering learner autonomy, and grammatical rank scale. All but one of the threshold concept studies in language teacher education have been conducted in the British Isles. The only non-British paper is by a Mexican author and was conducted and published in Mexico. Action research has been the preferred design. Other established methods for identifying threshold concepts have not been applied to language teacher education, which means that there is much potential for expanding and improving upon existing research. We suggest that threshold concepts hold potential to both investigate and enhance the disciplinary identity of language teachers.
Teachers&apos; Perception of Benefits and Drawbacks of Different Instructional Approaches on Their Learning
Author: Khaled, Hanan
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Teacher Attitudes,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Learning Processes,Faculty Development,College Faculty,Undergraduate Students,Teacher Certification,Educational Benefits,Foreign Countries,Teacher Workshops,Mentors,Reflective Teaching,Teaching Skills

With the goal to effectively produce a cadre of trained and ready foreign language (FL) teachers, the academic debate is not only focused on what content knowledge and skills the teacher needs, but also on how to best deliver teacher training in order to acquire such knowledge and skills (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Hence, it is particularly important to evaluate the design and facilitation of teacher professional development (PD) courses to maximize learning and transfer of training. This action research study investigated the instructional approaches offered in a PD course in a FL institute and teachers' perceptions of benefits and drawbacks of each approach on their learning. A mixed method approach (Teddlie &amp; Tashakkori, 2009; Tsushima, 2017) was followed to obtain a holistic understanding of the issue. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. This included tracking the time spent on different instructional approaches over two iterations of the course in two different Middle-Eastern (ME) language schools and using a survey with open-ended questions to collect teachers' input about the instructional approaches. Four course facilitators and thirteen teachers participated in the study. Data analysis indicated that mentoring played a significant role in participants' learning. The mentoring sessions embedded within the workshop instructional hours and the one-on-one ad hoc out of class mentoring sessions, constituting 73% of the total instructional hours, were perceived as being instrumental to the participants' learning experiences. One implication for teacher trainers is that they need to be aware of what specific personal and professional qualities they bring to mentoring teachers or what skills they do not yet possess. Teacher training courses and on-going reflective practice need to include such opportunities.
Studies Conducted on Entrepreneurship in Science Education: Thematic Review of Research
Author: Deveci, Isa
Date: 2017-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Entrepreneurship,Science Education,Educational Research,Teaching Models,Science Curriculum,Learning Modules,Curriculum Design

In recent years in many educational curriculums, entrepreneurship has attracted much attention as a concept, from primary education to higher education. In this sense, attention is given to the concept of entrepreneurship that is included in both national and international science education curriculums. In this research, the aim was to investigate studies conducted on entrepreneurship in science education in terms of their general characteristics (publication year, number of authors, publication type) and characteristics of their content (purpose, method, data collection tool, sample type, conclusion and suggestions). As a result of the research, it is noteworthy that studies have been published in recent years in general. On the other hand, it was identified that there are studies much more published as literature review, document analysis, theoretical. In some research, it was seen that the teaching model, curriculum and modules are developed and integrated within science education to promote entrepreneurship. In addition, it is observed that in most of the studies have been reached positive results about the concept of entrepreneurship should be integrated with science education. Depending on the results, it should be said that teaching curriculums can be designed and implemented that are likely to improve students' entrepreneurial skills in science courses.