Critically examining the use of blog-based fanfiction in the advanced language classroom

ReCALL ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (01) ◽  
pp. 40-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Sauro ◽  
Björn Sundmark
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Education Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Role Play ◽  
School Level ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Secondary School Level

AbstractThis paper critically examines the integration of online fanfiction practices into an advanced university English language classroom. The fanfiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, was carried out as part of a course in the teacher education program at a Swedish university for students who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Participants were 122 students who completed the course in 2013 and 2014. In both classes, students were organized into groups of three to six to write collaborative blog-based role-play fanfiction of a missing moment from JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novelThe Hobbit. The 31 resulting pieces of collaborative fanfiction, the online formats they were published in, the 122 reflective essays produced by the two classes, and interviews with a focal group of participants were used to explore how technology and learners’ experience with this technology may have mediated the resulting stories. In addition, the classroom fanfiction texts were compared with comparable online writing published in the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (Ao3) to identify thematic and stylistic differences. The results showed that students’ lack of familiarity with publishing in blogs often posed a challenge that some groups were able to overcome or exploit to facilitate or enhance the readability of their completed stories. Compared to online fanfiction, the classroom fanfiction was less innovative with respect to focal characters yet more collective in its focus, with stories being told from multiple characters’ perspectives.

scholarly journals Communication Barriers in English Language Classroom: A Study of Teachers' Perceptions in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol V (III) ◽  
pp. 68-76
Author(s):  
Shahida Naz ◽  
Zahoor Hussain ◽  
Malik Adnan
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
English Language ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Communication Barriers ◽  
School Level ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Secondary School Level ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Content Semantic

This study was an effort to explore the barriers of communication faced by the teachers and students in the English language classroom that cause problems in knowledge sharing. Effective communication is necessary to make teaching effective and successful as if the information is conveyed in a poor way would not result in effective teaching. Researcher through this study tried to explore what kind of communication barriers are faced by teachers and students while learning in the classroom. A questionnaire was used for data collection from teachers of English working at secondary school level in tehsil Shujabad of district Multan, Pakistan. Researcher through this study has identified various critical types of barriers of communication, including the psychological, content, semantic, physical and environmental barriers and the strategies to overcome these barriers. This research study provides relevant information on communication barriers and what procedures are needed to be followed to overcome them.

scholarly journals Assessment of English Learning in a Language Teacher Education Program

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-214
Author(s):  
Leonardo Herrera Mosquera ◽  
Lilian Cecilia Zambrano Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Course Syllabi ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive

The purpose of this study is to characterize the assessment process in an English Language Teacher Education Program (ELTEP, hereafter) at a Colombian public university. Following a qualitative-descriptive approach, we identified the perceptions of teachers and students facing this process, reviewed some official documents such as course syllabi and test samples, and observed some classes to respond to the main inquiries of the present study. As data collection instruments we used interviews, questionnaires, field diaries, and documentary records, which allowed for the corresponding triangulation of the information. Once the information was collected, we proceeded to its respective analysis through a methodology of descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis with the support of a computer program for the codification and categorization of information. The results of this study allow us to conclude that in spite of the general guidelines proposed by the institution in terms of assessment of learning, and some good evaluative practices implemented by the teachers of the aforementioned Program, the consolidation of an approach is required. An approach understood as criteria and pedagogical procedures that guide both teachers and students, and one that promotes more formative, fair and democratic assessments.

scholarly journals The Role of Situational Context and Linguistic Context when Testing EFL Vocabulary Knowledgde in a Language Teacher Education Program: A Preliminary Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Patricia Franco ◽  
Hector Alejandro Galvis
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Situational Context ◽  
Basic Vocabulary

This research aims to provide a preliminary approach on to what extent linguistic and situational contexts are conducive to successfulvocabulary recognition in discrete-item testing in the context of a language teacher education program in Bogotá. This study resorted to the useof four different types of vocabulary tests administered during a one-semester period to two different classes. The data collected revealed thatstudents had more success in a test of productive vocabulary (L2 to L1 translation) than in other types of tests, namely, productive vocabulary(L2 to L1 translation/multiple choice), L2 to L1 translation provided with linguistic context and cued situational context. The findings of thisresearch suggest that the participating pre-service teachers had not reached the basic vocabulary knowledge of the English Language at thetime of this study. It was also found that vocabulary items devoid of contextual cues are more accurately identified than those embedded withina linguistic context and a cued situational context.

Implementing tasks in young learners’ language classrooms: A collaborative teacher education initiative through task evaluation

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216881989470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Implementation Evaluation ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Language Classrooms

Despite empirical evidence in support of the effectiveness of using tasks in young learners’ classrooms, task implementation has been repeatedly reported as a thorny problem. An essential but under-researched issue is how in-service teacher education programme can be conducted to facilitate teachers’ implementing tasks in their classrooms. This practitioner research article reports on a researcher and teacher educator’s action research study in which she worked with Lucille (pseudonym), a novice English language teacher, to design and implement two repeated task-based language teaching (TBLT) lessons for Grade 2 students at a Chinese primary school. During a six-week teacher education program consisting of two cycles of TBLT lesson planning, implementation, evaluation, and reflection, the teacher educator provided continuous support to guide and scaffold Lucille’s reflective endeavours at crafting TBLT practices in her classrooms. The teacher educator also conducted student-based, response-based, learning-based, and community-based task evaluations to facilitate the teacher’s reflective practices. The study illustrates how an in-service teacher education program, fuelled by on-going professional support and empirical evaluation, facilitated a practitioner’s task implementation in young learners’ foreign language classrooms.

scholarly journals Acquiring the notion of learning hypotheses in mathematics teacher education

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (61) ◽  
pp. 459-479
Author(s):  
Pedro Gómez ◽  
María C. Cañadas ◽  
María A. Suavita
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Mathematics Teacher Education ◽  
Learning Trajectory ◽  
Learning Trajectories ◽  
Hypothetical Learning Trajectory

Abstract The notion of hypothetical learning trajectory has generated much interest among experts in mathematics education. It is proposed that this notion is a useful tool in teachers’ teaching practice and that it is necessary to prepare teachers in their capacity to formulate hypothetical learning trajectories about specific mathematics school topics. It is therefore also necessary to explore the learning processes that teachers undergo when learning this notion in their education. In this article, we introduce the notion of learning hypotheses as an adaptation of the idea of hypothetical learning trajectory (SIMON, 1995). We describe how the groups of secondary-school mathematics teachers that participated in a teacher education program understood and used this notion in order to determine the contribution of a set of tasks to a learning goal previously established. We found that the groups developed their knowledge of the notion of learning hypotheses and used it in a heterogeneous way, and that the education program was partly successful in its goal to make the groups of teachers learn and perceive the notion’s utility.

scholarly journals A Practice-Based Approach to Foreign Language Teacher Preparation: A Cross-Continental Collaboration

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malba Barahona ◽  
Kristin J. Davin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Education Program ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher

The international trend towards a practice-based approach in teacher education has permeated foreign language teacher education and English language teaching. A practice-based approach is based on the understanding that teachers learn to teach a language by engaging in “actual” teaching rather than “talking” about teaching. We report on the implementation of a practice-based approach in two different contexts: an initial English teacher education program in Chile and an initial foreign language teacher education program in the United States. We provide practical recommendations and areas of caution for future enactments. The findings demonstrate that incorporating a practice-based approach into the university classroom offers a useful affordance for examining and illuminating the complexities of foreign language teaching practice across contexts.

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