The National Curriculum Changes and Their Effects on English Language Teaching in the People’s Republic of China

The study was attempted to explore as to what extent English language teaching in Pakistan has been able to develop language skills among the target learners. The researcher intended to evaluate the limit to which the textbook helps in generating competence of all four integrated skills, especially as laid down in the standards of the National Curriculum (2006). The purpose of this study was to create pragmatic awareness among learners, teachers and educational professionals, working in the field of English as Foreign Language. By method , it was a qualitative study, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were the tools used to elicit the data. The participants of this research were selected from public sector schools and organizations including, teachers, policymakers, curriculum developers, subject specialists, and students to examine the effectiveness of grade VIII’s English language textbook on students’ performance . For data analysis themes were developed, coded and summarized in a descriptive mode. The findings of this study reflected that the relevant textbook does not cater to the target learners’ future academic and professional language needs. As a solution to the problems while teaching and learning English as foreign language in Pakistan; this study also offered a model to be followed by the policy makers and practitioners in order to make the existing English language textbook more effectives in terms of foreign language teaching and learning and language skill development.

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USING A GENRE-BASED APPROACH TO PREPARE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR AN ENGLISH THESIS DEFENCE EXAMINATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY TO ADDRESS THE ‘PEDAGOGICAL CONTROVERSY’

Linguistik Indonesia ◽

10.26499/li.v35i1.56 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 75-93

Author(s):

Iskandar Abdul Samad ◽

Zifirdaus Adnan

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

National Curriculum ◽

Poor Performance ◽

Academic Community ◽

English Language Teaching ◽

Language Competence ◽

Important Approach

A great deal of research has been conducted on genre based approach, suggesting that it is an important approach. Its importance is also indicated by the fact that it is adopted in the 2004 and 2006 National English Curricula of Indonesian secondary schools. However, the pedagogical benefit of this approach to English language teaching is still controversial. Some research has shown that it is effective to develop language competence, some has not. The fact that since the adoption of this approach in the 2004 Indonesian National Curriculum the quality of Indonesian English language teaching at Indonesian schools has not significantly improved complicates the issue further. The present study was intended to contribute to the debate. It is an experiment to discover whether the approach can help improve the performance of students in university thesis defence examinations. The study was conducted at a university level because of an important practical issue, that is complaints among members of the academic community about the poor performance of undergraduate (UG) students in the thesis defence examination (TDE) event at Indonesian universities especially in Aceh. It was believed that even though students were competent in speaking general English, they were poor in their oral thesis defence performance. This study concludes that, with some conditions, it can help at least in some respects.

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