Creating Critical Literacy Praxis: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098266
Author(s):  
Tsung-han Weng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
Literacy Implementation ◽  
Critical Literacy Pedagogy ◽  
Literacy Research

Although research in critical literacy has long been conducted in English as a second language contexts, a modicum of critical literacy research in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts in which English is seldom used outside the classroom environment has also been undertaken. This article aims to discuss the introduction of critical literacy in the Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) profession, which has been neglected by TESOL researchers and practitioners in EFL contexts. The article reviews and synthesizes the existing literature by providing conceptualizations of the critical literacy approach to TESOL, examples of critical literacy implementation, and the benefits and challenges of implementing critical literacy pedagogy. The article concludes by calling for more critical literacy research in EFL contexts.

scholarly journals Literature and critical literacy pedagogy in the EFL classroom: Towards a model of teaching critical thinking skills

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Bobkina ◽  
Svetlana Stefanova
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Rudyard Kipling ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Literacy Pedagogy

Drawing on the numerous benefits of integrating literature in the EFL classroom, the present paper argues that the analysis of a fictional work in the process of foreign language acquisition offers a unique opportunity for students to explore, interpret, and understand the world around them. The paper presents strong evidence in favour of reader-centered critical reading as a means of encouraging observation and active evaluation not only of linguistic items, but also of a variety of meanings and viewpoints. The authors propose a model of teaching critical thinking skills focused on the reader’s response to a literary work. The practical application of the method, which adopts the critical literacy approach as a tool, is illustrated through a series of activities based on the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling.

scholarly journals A SURVEY ON CRITICAL LITERACY AS A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH IN INDONESIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gin Gin Gustine
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Approach To Teaching

In English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context, Foreign-Language (EFL) context,critical literacy as an alternative approach to teaching language and literature may be considered as something new, compared to its origin in some English-speaking countries such as Australia or the USA. Teachers wishing to adopt critical literacy stance in their class are often left with little knowledge or experience on what critical literacy is and how to develop this approach in their class. This article discusses the result of a survey involving twenty one English teachers in a teacher education university in Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, related to their knowledge on critical literacy as an approach to teaching English language. Result of questionnaires followed up by a focus group discussion reveals that although these teachers have been teaching English for approximately five to seven years in different levels of schools, some teachers show lack of knowledge on critical literacy as a methodological approach to teaching English. Finally, this article concludes with suggestions for English teachers to develop a critical literacy-oriented classroom.

scholarly journals Editorial

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-13
Author(s):  
Mirosław Pawlak
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Generalist Teachers

It is my immense pleasure to share with you the first 2021 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. It brings together five papers reporting the findings of empirical studies as well as two reviews of very recent publications. The issue opens with the contribution by Mariusz Kruk, Mirosław Pawlak, and Joanna Zawodniak, who investigate changes in the levels of boredom experienced by 13 Polish university students majoring in English during four EFL classes as well as factors responsible for such fluctuations. Multiple sources of data were applied which included boredom-grids, where participants indicated the intensity of this negative emotion on a 7-point Likert scale at 5-minute intervals, class evaluation forms, narratives, semi-structured interviews with four students after each class, and lesson plans. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis demonstrated that boredom was indeed subject to between- and within-class variation, which resulted from various constellations of variables, with repetitiveness, monotony and predictability playing a key role. In the second paper, Xiaowan Yang and Mark Wyatt report a qualitative case study which examined teachers’ beliefs about learners’ motivation and their own motivational practices, and the actions they actually took in this respect in the classroom in the context of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in China. The analysis of the data collected from three university-level teachers of business English by means of pre-observation interviews, in-class observations and stimulated recall interviews yielded evidence for tensions between participants’ cognitions and practices they engaged in, showing that such mismatches negatively affect their self-determination. The existence of this cognitive disharmony is attributed to scarce opportunities for professional development, outdated knowledge about motivation and cultural influences. The theme of ESP also features in the following paper by Cailing Lu, Frank Boers and Averil Coxhead, who explored understanding of technical terms included in a list of technical words related to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with the aim of determining which of these terms should be emphasized during instruction. The requisite data were collected by means of a word association task, drawing on Read’s (1998) Word Association Test, as well as retrospective interviews from 21 BA students in China and New Zealand. The analysis showed that although the students manifested good understanding of the targeted items, especially high-frequency ones, some Chinese participants experienced difficulty understanding mid- and low-frequency words. By contrast, the Western learners mainly struggled with Chinese loan words, but their comprehension was not impacted by cultural differences. In the fourth paper, Bryła-Cruz reports the findings of a study which looked into the role of gender in the perception of English segments by Polish learners of English as a foreign language. The data were collected from 40 male and 40 female secondary school students who were asked to indicate the sound they heard in 20 sentences containing minimal pairs. The differences between males and females failed to reach statistical significance for most targeted segments and while the hierarchy of perceptual difficulty was not identical for both groups, it was similar, which suggests that differences between the sound systems of the first and second language might trump the mediating role of gender. In the final paper, Jesús Izquierdo, Silvia Patricia Aquino Zúñiga, and Verónica García Martínez shift the focus to the context of foreign language education in rural schools in southeast Mexico, zooming in on the challenges faced by generalist teachers, or non-language specialists, tasked with the job of teaching English. The data were collected by means of questionnaires administered to 155 such teachers in 17 schools and semi-structured interviews with those who manifested the greatest involvement in professional development. Using frequency analysis and categorical aggregation, the researchers show that generalist teachers are confronted with a wide array of problems related to their professional preparation, instructional techniques used as well as the sociocultural realities of L2 instruction in rural communities. In addition, only a few teachers are prepared to develop professionally, relying instead on limited strategies that help them combat the challenges they encounter. The issue also includes two book reviews by Jarosław Krajka and Mirosław Pawlak. The first book deals with the assessment of English proficiency among young learners while the second is devoted to research into learning and teacher psychology from the perspective of complex dynamic systems theory (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2007). I am hopeful that all the contributions will provide food for thought to our readers and inspire them to further disentangle the intricacies of second language learning and teaching.

Review on Motivation of Second Language Learners in Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 4229-4233
Author(s):  
Yi Xia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Motivational Strategies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

This paper will provide insight into motivation through the lenses of learning style, interaction and feedback. If the relationship between motivation and three factors are well understood, then the learning of second foreign language can be facilitated in the classroom. Motivational strategies also will be presented after each lens. At the end of the paper, it concludes with the limitations of these researches and specific implications such as classroom environment for further teaching practice.

scholarly journals Influence of Discrimination in the Field of TESOL: Perspectives of Mexican EFL Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Edgar Emmanuell Garcia-Ponce
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Language Status ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages

In the last few decades, several studies have documented the discrimination that teachers face in the field of Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). To date, research evidence has shown that discrimination tends to be motivated by issues concerning the native- vers. non-native language status of these professionals. However, recent evidence has suggested that discrimination in TESOL is intricate involving factors that are associated with the language status of teachers, their pronunciation, gender, race, sexual preference, age, among others. Despite the fact that this evidence has revealed the struggles of these professionals, no research discourse, to my knowledge, has shown the extent to which these phenomena impact on the professionals’ perceptions, feelings and decision making. In response to this, the present study was conducted to understand the effects and results of discrimination in the field of TESOL in Mexico from the professionals’ perspectives. Through an online questionnaire, 78 Mexican English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were asked to describe the instances in which they felt discriminated, and how these influenced their perceptions and decision making concerning their profession. The results show that the discrimination practices impact in complex ways, showing negative effects on the professionals’ perceptions, feelings and decisions regarding their current profession. This evidence calls for more effective strategies in order to stop affecting teachers in ELT.

scholarly journals The Central Characteristics of Successful ESL/EFL Teachers

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 881
Author(s):  
Khalid Al-Seghayer
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
The Many

Achieving optimal success in teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires teachers to demonstrate varying essential characteristics that consist of several underlying and interacting constructs. The purpose of this article is to orient the reader and succinctly identify the key variables that lead ESL/EFL teachers to distinctive success. It clearly delineates the characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers embedded within five central dimensions, along with their underlying structures. It also provides common taxonomies of successful EFL teachers’ attributes without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail concerning the many other validated attributes associated with ESL/EFL teachers’ salient attributions of success. To this end, this discussion contributes to a theoretical understanding of the development of successful ESL/EFL teachers and to improved knowledge of the key characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers.

scholarly journals Message from Editor

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 01
Author(s):  
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Second Language Teaching

Dear Readers,It is the great honor for us to publish sixth issue of Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (GJFLT). Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching welcomes original empirical investigations and comprehensive literature review articles focusing on foreign language teaching and topics related with linguistics. GJFLT is an international journal published quarterly and it is devoted to be a joint platform for presenting and discussing the emerging developments on foreign language teaching in an international arena.The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to; the following major topics as they relate to: Cultural studies, Curriculum Development and Syllabus Design, Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), General Linguistics, Globalization Studies and world English’s, Independent/Autonomous Learning, Information and Computer Technology in TEFL, Innovation in language, Teaching and learning, Intercultural Education, Language acquisition and learning, Language curriculum development, Language education, Language program evaluation, Language Testing and Assessment, Literacy and language learning, Literature, Mobile Language Learning, Pragmatics, Second Language, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition Theory, Digital Literacy Skills, Second Language Learners, Second Language Learning, Second language Pedagogy, Second Language Proficiency, Second Language Speech, Second Language Teaching, Second Language Training, Second Language Tutor, Second language Vocabulary Learning, Teaching English as a Foreign/ Second Language, Teaching Language Skills, Translation Studies, Applied linguistics, Cognitive linguistics.Linguistic clichés, teaching English as a foreign language, corpus-based language teaching, TESOL, language acquisition and elementary literacy teaching topics have been included into this issue. The topics of the next issue will be different. You can make sure that we will be trying to serve you with our journal with a rich knowledge in which different kinds of topics are discussed in 2016 Volume.A total number of ten (10) manuscripts were submitted for this issue and each paper has been subjected to double-blind peer review process by the reviewers specialized in the related field. At the end of the review process, a total number of six (6) high quality research papers were selected and accepted for publication.We present many thanks to all the contributors who helped us to publish this issue. Best regards,Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali RahimiEditor – in Chief

scholarly journals A Review on Instructing English through Literary Genre

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-293
Author(s):  
Nadia HAMIMED
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Literature Teaching ◽  
Teaching Tools ◽  
Language Classrooms

This study aims to highlight the utilization of literary genre as a well-liked method for instructing both language skills (that is to say, writing, reading, speaking, and listening) and language fields (that are grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary). Why employing literary textbooks in foreign language classrooms and the main motives for choosing appropriate fictional texts in these classrooms are emphasized to make the reader acquainted with the motivating incentives and standards for foreign language teachers’ employing and picking erudite textbooks. Additionally, the teaching of language skills and literary genre gains benefits of diverse fields of literature (like drama, poems, tragedy and tales) to language teaching and to several difficulties met by language teachers in the sphere of instructing English using fiction (i.e. shortage of training in the field of literature teaching English as a Second English and Teaching English as a Foreign Language curriculums, deficiency of precise aims describing the function of fiction in English as a Foreign Language and English as a Second Language, foreign language teachers’ not possessing the experience and preparation in literature, and lack of suitable teaching tools to be utilized by foreign language teachers in a class milieu) are taken into consideration.

scholarly journals ПОКРАЩЕННЯ ЯКОСТІ НАВЧАННЯ У ВИЩІЙ ШКОЛІ: ФАКТОРИ ТА МЕТОДОЛОГІЯ

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Duzhyk N.S.
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Communicative Activities ◽  
University Setting

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors and methods enhancing the quality of learning in a university setting. It is pointed out that an overcritical attitude towards learners’ incompetent public performance may cause anxiety and hinder their learning. However, group participation facilitates developing students’ self-expression and life skills. Traditional views on teaching are evaluated with regard to the latest pedagogical trends.The methodology of the paper relies on observation of the educational process, theoretical analysis of common and emerging frameworks for teaching English as a second language in a university setting, as well as synthesis, and generalization of research literature findings.The paper demonstrates how a traditional framework for teaching English as a second language can be modified to accommodate learners’ needs and investigates how innovative methods and technologies affect teaching of a foreign language and development of students’ foreign language competence. It is shown that lessons incorporating pre-communicative and communicative activities can be structured differently. The key to successful learning by a group of students is to take into consideration the quality of tasks and to present materials in a flexible manner to the learners.Our examples are based on fundamental principles, such as a variety of tasks, repetition and internationalization of the content. For warm-up or pre-communicative activities, we choose tasks preparing students for speaking and building their language competence. A number of “silent” activities enable learners to perform more or less simultaneously in order to lay the foundation for their internal language representation in an atmosphere free from anxiety and distraction. After completing exercises, students are expected to utilize previously learned grammar and vocabulary in their speech.In conclusion, we reiterate that successful learning takes place when external and internal factors are accounted for. Modern technologies are an effective extension of in-class learning for improving students’ pronunciation, enriching their vocabulary, and developing their speaking and writing skills.Key words: foreign and second language learning, principles of learning, approaches, technology-enhanced learning, the sequence of tasks. Метою статті є визначення факторів і підходів, які сприяють підвищенню якості університетської освіти. Зазначено, що занадто критичне ставлення до неправильних відповідей студентів в аудиторії може спричинити бентежність та сповільнити навчання. Проте групова діяльність уможливлює розвиток самовираження та життєво важливих навиків. Традиційні погляди на навчання оцінюються з огляду на новітні тенденції.Методологія роботи ґрунтується на спостереженнях за навчальним процесом, теоретичному аналізі загальних та новітніх моделей навчання англійської мови як іноземної в університеті, а також на синтезі та узагальненні матеріалу.У статті показано, як можна модифікувати традиційну модель для вивчення англійської мови як іноземної, щоб задовольнити потреби здобувачів, та досліджено, як інноваційні методи та технології впливають на викладання іноземної мови та розвиток іншомовної компетенції студентів. Заняття, яке включає домовленнєвий етап та власне мовленнєвий етап, можна структурувати по-різному. Ключовий момент полягає у врахуванні характеру завдань та гнучкості у навчанні здобувачів.Наші приклади ґрунтуються на фундаментальних засадах, таких як різноманітність завдань, повторення та індивідуальне осмислення змісту. Для домовленнєвого епапу ми дібрали завдання, які готують студентів до мовленнєвої діяльності та формують їхню мовну компетентність. Низка завдань, які виконуються мовчки, має на меті відносно одночасне їх завершення, закладає основи внутрішньої мовної репрезентації в умовах, позбавлених бентежності та відволікання уваги. Очікується, що після виконання завдань студенти використовуватимуть засвоєну граматику та лексику у власному мовленні.У висновках наголошується на тому, що навчання є успішним, коли до уваги беруться зовнішні та внутрішні фактори. Сучасні технології є ефективним продовженням аудиторної роботи, яка дає змогу покращувати вимову, збільшувати словниковий запас, а також розвивати навики усного та письмового мовлення.Ключові слова: вивчення другої мови як іноземної, принципи навчання, підходи, цифрові технології навчання, послідовність завдань

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