scholarly journals Cultural Presentation in Thai Secondary School ELT Coursebooks: An Analysis From Intercultural Perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Athip Thumvichit
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Time Zone ◽  
Cultural Content ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
Reading Texts

Globalization has accelerated the growth of English and created a need for several changes in English language teaching (ELT), one of which is related to the role of ELT materials in facilitating interaction across cultures. Considering the fast growing importance of cultural content in ELT, this study explores issues of cultural presentation in Thai secondary school ELT coursebooks. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to analyze cultural content presented in visuals and reading texts; second, to investigate teachers’ attitudes toward cultural presentation in ELT coursebooks. The coursebook sample included seven approved ELT coursebooks entitled Bridge 1, English in Mind 1, Messages 1, Motivate! 1, New World 1, Time Zone 1, and Your Space 1. The findings suggested that native speakers’ contexts were dominantly portrayed in both visuals and reading texts in all the coursebooks except Time Zone 1, which yielded a great deal of non-native speakers’ contexts. Nevertheless, Thai cultural context was completely absent from the reading-focused activities, and only a few pictures presenting Thai culture were identified. The questionnaire findings revealed that Thai secondary teachers are ready to embrace the intercultural aspects of ELT, as the overwhelming majority of respondents’ opinions signified the shift toward localized and culturally diversified materials.

scholarly journals Rhetorical Reading for Writing Strategies

2019 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Irena Kuzborska
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Writing Strategies ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Computer Assisted Language Learning ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Rhetorical Reading ◽  
Reading Texts

This article is based on the plenary talk given at the inaugural UHAMKA International Conference on English Language Teaching (ELT) and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) (UICELL 2018) in Jakarta, Indonesia, 23 November 2018, and focuses on the explanation of reading as a communicative rhetorical act. Outlining the key features of such reading, it then considers the benefits of reading texts rhetorically. A specific focus is given to the role of rhetorical reading in writing. While the article acknowledges the limited research on the relationship, it provides some evidence that reading texts rhetorical can lead to both more effective reading and more effective writing. A specific technique on how to teach students to read texts rhetorically is also presented in this article.

scholarly journals Kuwaiti Parents’ Perceptions towards Introducing a Foreign Culture into Their Children’s EFL Textbooks in Public Elementary Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Mohammad Almutairi
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public Elementary Schools ◽  
Cultural Content ◽  
The Government

This study aims to investigate Kuwaiti parents' views and opinions towards introducing native speakers' and international cultures into their children's' EFL textbooks in public schools in the light of recent debates that discuss the relationship between culture and English language teaching. It also intends to explore and discover their perceptions towards the current cultural content being taught in Kuwait public elementary schools. For this purpose, questionnaires were distributed among Kuwaiti parents whom their children study in the government public schools followed by semi-structured interviews to get more detailed and in-depth information about the topic discussed. The findings of this study show that the vast majority had negative opinions and views towards exposing their children to native speaker's cultures for social and religious reasons. One of which is their underlying concern about the negative impacts of native speakers' content on their children's cultural and national identity. However, most of them agreed their children learn EFL through the prism of the international multicultural cultural content to prepare them use the language in different cultural contexts when they grow up. The results also showed that most of them preferred to keep the current ELT syllabus which uses the host cultural content rather than replacing it with the native speakers' one for the same reasons and also in view of growing awareness of the role played by culture in the EFL classroom which propound the nature of the Kuwaiti society of being conservative and cautious.

scholarly journals THE TEACHING OF EFL LISTENING IN THE INDONESIAN CONTEXT: THE STATE OF THE ART

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Bambang Yudi Cahyono ◽  
Utami Widiati
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
International Language ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Status ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Teaching Of Listening ◽  
Listening Process

The status of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia necessitates the use of English native speakers' utterances as models of pronunciation and as standard of understanding messages in various contexts, be they academic or social. As recently English has developed as an international language that can be used as a means of communication between people from non-English speaking countries, the role of listening activities in the teaching of English cannot be neglected. This article highlights the importance of listening and reviews some of the issues in the research and teaching of EFL listening. It firstly presents a paradigm of the listening process, followed by a theoretical framework for teaching listening, especially in the broader context of English language teaching. It then discusses the teaching of and research on EFL listening in Indonesia. Finally, this article outlines some recommendations for more effective teaching of listening in EFL classrooms.

scholarly journals English Pronunciation Instruction: Views and Recommendations

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Pourhossein Gilakjani
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Pronunciation Instruction ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Language Teaching Methods

Despite decades of advocacy for greater attention, research into pronunciation instruction in English language teaching continues to be restricted. This article provides a comprehensive review of some important issues of English pronunciation instruction. The purposes of this review are (a) to explain different views of pronunciation instruction, (b) to elaborate the role of pronunciation in language teaching methods, (c) to discuss native-like pronunciation, and (d) to mention some recommendations for the better teaching of English pronunciation. The review of the literature of this paper indicated that the objective of pronunciation instruction is not to gain native-like pronunciation and speak exactly like native speakers of English. Instead understandable pronunciation should be the ultimate aim of oral communication.

Developing conversational competence through language awareness and multimodality: the use of DVDs

ReCALL ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Moreno Jaén ◽  
Carmen Pérez Basanta
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Conversational Interaction ◽  
Conversational Competence ◽  
Oral Interaction

AbstractThe argument for a pedagogy of input oriented learning for the development of speaking competence (Sharwood-Smith, 1986; Bardovi-Harlig and Salsbury, 2004; Eslami-Rasekh, 2005) has been of increasing interest in Applied Linguistics circles. It has also been argued that multimedia applications, in particular DVDs, provide language learners with multimodal representations that may help them ‘to gain broad access to oral communication both visually and auditory’ (Tschirner, 2001: 305). Thus this paper focuses on an exploratory study of teaching oral interaction through input processing by means of multimodal texts.The paper is divided into a number of interconnected sections. First, we outline briefly what teaching conversation implies and examine the important role of oral comprehension in the development of conversational interaction. In fact, it has been suggested that effective speaking depends very much on successful understanding (Oprandy, 1994). In this paper we pay special attention to the crucial role of context in understanding oral interactions. Therefore, we outline the theory of context in English Language Teaching (ELT). The discussion draws on approaches to teaching conversation and it also offers a brief reflection about the need for materials which might convey the sociocultural and semiotic elements of oral communication through which meaning is created.We then discuss the decisions taken to propose a new multimodal approach to teaching conversation from a three-fold perspective: (a) the selection of texts taken from films, and the benefits of using DVDs (digital versatile disc); (b) the development of a multimodal analysis of film clips for the design of activities; and (c) the promotion of a conversation awareness methodology through a bank of DVD clips to achieve an understanding of how native speakers actually go about the process of constructing oral interactions.In sum, the main thrust of this paper is to pinpoint the advantages of using multimodal materials taken from DVDs, as they provide learners with broad access to oral communication, both visual and auditory, making classroom conditions similar to the target cultural environment (Tschirner, 2001).

scholarly journals Teaching English in Non-English Departments: Empowering Teacher Towards Improvement

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Ninuk Sholikhah Akhiroh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English Departments ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Relevant Field

ABSTRACT English Language Teaching (ELT) in non-English majors already has its “home” but not its “host”. It means that the parties involved in the teaching have not been able to manage an effective ELT yet. There could be many aspects related to this, yet this paper prefers to propose a solution to improve the effectiveness of English teaching in non-English majors by empowering the English language lecturer. This paper refers to the results of research conducted on the teaching of English in the Faculty of Social Sciences that use lecturers and students as the main informant, as well as interviews, observation and document analysis as data collection techniques. The results showed that some important improvement in ELT for non-English majors can be initiated by the lecturers. There are some necessary steps to do to reinforce the role of lecturers in ELT implementation. They are involving the lecturer in designing or revising the curriculum, building connection with fellow ESP lecturers and lecturers of relevant field of study, and activating Focus Group Discussion among teaching team. These steps hopefully will be complemented by the improvement of other aspects in ELT for non-English departments to build an effective teaching.   ABSTRAK Pengajaran bahasa Inggris di jurusan non-bahasa Inggris baru memiliki “rumah” saja, belum “tuan rumah”nya. Ini berarti bahwa pihak-pihak yang terlibat dalam pembelajaran belum dapat menata sebuah pengajaran bahasa Inggris yang efektif. Ada banyak hal yang dapat dilakukan, namun tulisan ini memilih untuk mengajukan sebuah solusi perbaikan pengajaran bahasa Inggris di jurusan non-bahasa Inggris dengan cara memberdayakan dosen pengampu matakuliah. Tulisan ini  merujuk pada hasil penelitian yang dilakukan terhadap pengajaran bahasa Inggris di Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dengan menggunakan dosen dan mahasiswa sebagai informan utama, serta wawancara, observasi dan analisis dokumen sebagai teknik pengumpulan data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa beberapa perbaikan penting dalam penegajaran bahasa Inggris dapat difasilitasi oleh dosen pengampu matakuliah. Langkah-langkah yang dapat dilakukan adalah: melibatkan dosen dalam menyusun kurikulum pengajaran bahasa Inggris; membangun hubungan dengan sesama dosen pengajar ESP dan dosen ahli bidang ilmu tertentu; mengaktifkan forum diskusi antar anggota tim pengajar. Langkah-langkah ini diharapkan dapat dilengkapi dengan perbaikan dari aspek-aspek lain guna mewujudkan pembelajaran yang efektif. How to Cite: Akhiroh, N. S. . (2017). Teaching English in Non-English Departments: Empowering Teacher Towards Improvement. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 4(1), 49-62. doi:10.15408/ijee.v4i1.5341  

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