Teaching English Language
Volume:18 Issue: 41, Winter and Spring 2024

As Taiwanese people do not have to speak English in their everyday lives, most are afraid to speak English. Nevertheless, people have many opportunities to bring English into their lives by employing podcasts on their mobiles. The present study aimed to determine whether teaching English listening and speaking with podcasts and collaborative learning can have a positive influence on learners’ English performance and to assess feedback from learners. A pre-experimental method was employed to examine the effect of podcasts and collaborative learning on the English learning of 108 freshmen. Data collection and analysis were based on pre- and post-test comparisons and a questionnaire survey. Paired-sample t-tests of the pre- and post-tests revealed that students’ overall English performance improved through podcasts and collaborative learning. The participants indicated that they had a positive attitude towards the course design and believed their English abilities had improved. However, this study had some limitations. Overall, online learning resources were employed in this study to conduct an English speaking and listening course, and a positive learning result was demonstrated. Participating students agreed that podcast episodes and collaborative learning were effective in their English learning.

Teachers’ perceptions play an important role in their teaching carrier as it paves the way for their pedagogy. The present study has tapped into EFL Iranian secondary school teachers’ perceptions of learners’ motivation. That is, starting from Kumaravadivelu’s KARDS model, teachers’ perception of learners’ motivation inspired by Dörnyei’s L2MSS model were investigated. A mixed-method design was employed. In the survey phase, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 223 respondents based on stratified purposive sampling. The acceptable degrees of CMIN/DF, GFI, RMSER, and CFI indicated the model fitness of motivation. In the narrative phase, 10 EFL secondary teachers gave voice to their opinions on motivation. The results showed (a) among the three components of L2MSS, that is, the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, and L2 learning experience, the ought-to L2 self was found to be the most important one; and (b) the five elements of learners’ related factors, the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, L2 learning experience, and positive reinforcement were the components of Iranian model of motivation. Therefore, the teachers’ perception was not up to date enough regarding Dörnyei’s model and some training programs seem desirable. Implications for theory and practice are finally drawn.

This study explored the impact of corrective feedback timing into learning and retention of lexical items and morpho-syntax markers following a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest-quasi experimental design. Sixty Iranian EFL learners from three same-level intermediate online classes were initially homogenized and pigeonholed into three equal groups depending on the feedback timing they received; the immediate CF (IC), short-term CF (SC) and delayed CF (DC). Participants in IC received corrective feedback during performing the task (online CF), the learners in SC after completing the task, and in DC a few days later. A one-way ANOVA and post-hoc test were administered to analyze the learners’ performance on written and oral pre, post and delayed post-tests. The results demonstrated a significant effect for immediate CF in learning of target structures. On GJT, the immediate CF group performed significantly higher than other two groups. As for OPT, a significant difference existed between immediate and delayed CF groups. The results also revealed that IC group statistically outperformed both SC and DC groups on GJT as well as OPT tests in retention of target features. The benefit observed for the IC group might be due to the memory benefits experienced by the immediate CF group while making a cognitive comparison, accessible as long as the L2 learner could hold a representation of the propositional message.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' professional and institutional identities, and their implementation of critical pedagogy. In order to address the research questions of this study, a mixed-method design was employed. Survey type approach and interview were used. Through convenience sampling, 121 EFL teachers from different private language institutes took part in the study by completing the professional identity questionnaire, the institutional Identity questionnaire, and the critical pedagogy implementation questionnaire. In the second phase of the study, for triangulating the data, 11 of the participants were interviewed. To analyze the data, Pearson product-moment correlation, multiple-regression, and qualitative content analyses were run. The obtained results pointed to the significant relationship both between EFL teachers' institutional identity and their implementation of critical pedagogy, and EFL teachers’ professional identity and their implementation of critical pedagogy. Moreover, teachers’ institutional identity was found to be predictive of their implementation of critical pedagogy. The study's findings have implications for teacher educators and language academies.

There are numerous factors that influence language learning success. However, one of the most significant factors is the learner's motivation to acquire the language for use in real-world situations. Research and practice indicate that learners with high motivation can succeed regardless of the circumstances. This study aims to identify effective strategies for promoting inclusion and motivation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. It will explore resources and tools that can support these strategies, investigate their impact on learners' participation and engagement levels, evaluate their effectiveness in achieving language learning goals, and provide recommendations for EFL educators. Concerning data collection required for investigating problems associated with the present study, the researchers used a qualitative data collection technique that involves gathering and processing numerical data to conduct statistical analysis. This research made use of the questionnaire as a method for collecting data and then ran those responses through SPSS for analysis. After collecting and analyzing the data, the study showed several significant findings, among which are the significance of inclusion and motivation in EFL classrooms, adopting effective strategies for promoting inclusion and motivation in EFL learning facilitates the learning process, and obtaining positive learners’ classroom engagement through inclusion and motivation. This study attempts to receive EFL instructors’ feedback regarding the utilization of inclusion and motivation as tools to enhance teaching and learning processes.

Online teaching is the new normal of today’s education especially after the Covid-19 pandemic that impacted the entire world tremendously. Keeping this in mind, it is currently essential to reshape teacher training as suitable to the requirements of the modern education. For this reason, pre-service English teachers should be prepared to teach online after graduation. Therefore, the present qualitative study investigates pre-service English teachers’ online micro teaching experiences in teaching writing and reading skills in Turkish context. Data were collected through reflection papers that each pre-service teacher wrote after their micro-teachings and an open-ended questionnaire that they completed at the end of the term and analyzed through content analysis. The findings showed that pre-service teachers experienced certain advantages of online teaching such as using online teaching features and reaching online materials easily. However, they also mentioned certain challenges. They mostly had difficulty in making students attend the lessons and participate it actively. That is why most participants favored virtual classroom teaching compared to online teaching and highlighted that effective online teachers should be able to attract students’ attention, use technology effectively, and be patient.

The specific purpose of this study was to examine the effect of vocabulary learning strategy training on university students’ vocabulary breadth knowledge and vocabulary depth knowledge. Experimental research design was employed. Both the control group (20 students) and the experimental group (20 students) sat for pre-tests and post-tests of vocabulary knowledge. In between the pre-tests and post tests, vocabulary learning strategy training was offered to only the experimental group. At the end, the results of the two groups were compared. The vocabulary learning strategy training was offered for 16 hours. The vocabulary strategy training material was produced by integrating the vocabulary lessons of Communicative English Language Skills I module of Ethiopia and the vocabulary learning strategies identified by Schmitt (1997) and renowned vocabulary books of various authors such as Oxford (1990), Nation (2001), Carter (1998) and TacaĆ (2008). Independent Sample T-test was computed on SPSS to examine if there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Paired Sample T-test was also run on the SPSS to see if there was a statistically significance difference between the pre and post mean scores of the students in the experimental and control group. Experimental group students scored better than control group students in vocabulary breadth knowledge test (statistically significant difference, p-value, .001; moderate effect size, Cohen’s d: .76). In addition, the students assigned to the experimental group scored higher than the control group in vocabulary depth knowledge test (statistically significant difference, p-value, .039; strong effect size, Cohen’s d: 1.80).

English proficiency refers to fluency of the language usage. It maintains four skills application, as well as sentence structures, and parts of speech. Morpheme is the smallest unit of a word, whereas verbs and nouns are the first two important parts of speech. They share some forms of words that could make the fluency better. Known as verbs, present simple tense is the foundation of grammar learning, and the continuous tense is the other. In this study, present simple tense and present continuous tense were taken as a tool to predict English grammar proficiency and a predictable exam was developed. As a result, the developed 67-item Tense Test is highly correlated with GPT and has significant differences in predicting English grammar proficiency as a whole. Suggestions are focusing more on the two crucial grammar tenses in English class in practice and introducing more pedagogical teaching materials into classroom on the distinguishments between the two grammar tenses and the others. The implications, limitations, and future research plans are presented in this paper.

Learning and teaching a second/foreign language is demanding and challenging, especially where it is done in an abnormal situation. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 and the resulting lockdown took language learning and teaching to another level. Learners and teachers faced various problems and also experienced multiple benefits during the pandemic. This quantitative study aimed to investigate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the online EFL curriculum in Iranian high schools in the context of COVID-19. A questionnaire was developed and analyzed through an exploratory factor analysis to understand the SWOT factors. The factors of SWOT were analyzed and the results revealed a 63.4% value for strengths, 70.3% for opportunities, 78.5% for weaknesses, and 75.5% for threats. The findings indicated that the weaknesses outweighed the strengths and the threats outweighed the opportunities. The conclusions drawn from these findings will have positive implications for high school EFL teachers, students, decision-makers, and policy-makers.

The worldwide spread of English, globalisation and more predisposition towards varieties of English necessitates a paradigm shift towards teaching English as an international language (TEIL) approach to promote multilingualism and embrace multiculturalism. The present study investigates the implementation of TEIL principles in English language teaching (ELT) classes through teacher professional development in the context of Iran. Employing transformative learning (TL) theory by Jarvis (2009), the professional development was implemented to help 88 pre-service English teachers experience disjunctures via a sequence of TL activities. Data from an EIL perception questionnaire complemented by researchers’ field notes and interviews with some teachers reveal that the professional development activities effectively enhanced participants’ understanding of the EIL concept and reshaped their attitudes towards varieties of English. The findings emphasize the importance of incorporating local and international cultural elements in ELT syllabi to facilitate learners’ integration of diverse cultural experiences. Suggestions for more research in the future are proposed along with practical ideas for policy-makers to consider integrating EIL concepts in teacher education.

Intercultural competence, as the ability to explore cultural diversity and alterity, to reflect on them and to gain from that reflective experience (Beacco et al., 2016), has been deemed increasingly important in today's language classrooms. Yet, when it comes to teaching and learning resources, it has been said that the cultural content presented in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks is often very superficial and mostly fact-based, aiming at the knowledge level only and not adopting a reflective approach, contrary to what recent language education guidelines state. Therefore, this study utilizes the Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA - Council of Europe, 2013) and its cultural descriptors to investigate how intercultural competence is addressed and promoted in EFL textbooks for grades 3 and 4 in central Portugal through a content analysis method. Each cultural section of the textbooks was examined utilizing the cultural attitudes and skills descriptors from FREPA so as to verify the textbooks’ content potential to generate critical reflections and discussions on otherness. The results indicate that the majority of the content analyzed is unlikely to promote deep critical reflections on interculturality due to its fact-sharing-based approach. Therefore, it is argued that policy makers, textbook authors and publishers would benefit from more training on critical cultural awareness and intercultural competence so as to become more able to incorporate a reflective and critical slant into the cultural content of EFL resources.

This study examined the effect of reciprocal teaching pedagogy on students’ writing proficiency development in an EFL classroom. A pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research design was employed. Two grade 11 intact classes, enrolled in 2023, were non-randomly selected from the school. A lot was cast to determine the RT and non-RT groups. The experimental group (n=43) was assigned to the RT group and the control group (n=41) was assigned to the non-RT group .Pre- and post-writing tests were conducted to collect data. Crosscutting issues were writing topics taken from Ethiopian Education national policy. The Diederich analytical scale model rubric was used to evaluate the pre-and post-test results. Independent and paired-sample t tests were used to analyze and interpret data. The findings revealed that the successful application of meta-cognitive strategies resulted in a significant difference between the RT and non-RT writing classroom participants. The RT participants out performed in predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing the topic sentence, appropriate supporting details, listed relevant discourse markers,minimize grammatical errors,improve the overall content and organization of their writing in their RT discussion session. As a result, RT pedagogy can be utilized as an instructional tool to facilitate students’ interaction and collaboration to improve their overall writing quality, and maximize learners' writing proficiency in an EFL classroom.