scholarly journals Intercultural Communicative Competence: In-Service EFL Teachers Building Understanding Through Study Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Luis Fernando Cuartas Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Collective Case Study ◽  
Group Data ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

This paper reports on an exploratory collective case study on three in-service English language teachers in Medellin, Colombia. The study aimed at creating a route for teachers to collaboratively construct their understanding of intercultural communicative competence through their involvement in a study group. Data were collected through recordings, interviews, and reflective logs, which followed a bottom-up analysis. Results evidenced changes in the participants’ views of culture, cross-cultural knowledge, intercultural stance, and understanding of intercultural communicative competence. As a conclusion, study groups materialized as an applicable tool for teachers’ professional development, which allowed participants to redraw their own initial beliefs and assumptions, fostering them to change professionally and in their praxis.

scholarly journals COLLABORATIVE STORY WRITING FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT

2018 ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Nina Lazarević
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
Story Writing ◽  
English Language Teachers

Development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in the constraints of the classroom faces many obstacles: not just formal, in terms of the choice of approaches, material and assessment, but also ethical and value-related. Building intercultural awareness in future teachers is equally important, as they should be prepared not only for the intercultural classroom, but for the imminent diversity that any classroom encompasses: ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, learner style. One of many techniques that have been used in the ICC classroom is cooperative story writing. The collaborative project was done by the American and Serbian university students, the former starting the stories and working under the instruction of Professor Kenneth Cushner, an intercultural communication specialist, and the latter finishing them. The jointly written stories showed that both students were up to a degree stereotypical in their understanding of the other culture, but were at the same aware of the steps that had to be taken to improve intercultural communication. A small-scale study is used to show how the learners’ understanding of culture may be enhanced, with a special focus on how future English language teachers might benefit from it.  

scholarly journals A study of EFL teachers’ classroom grading practices in secondary schools and private institutes: a mixed methods approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Nowruzi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Motivation Enhancement ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development ◽  
Internal And External Factors

AbstractThis explanatory sequential mixed methods study aimed at exploring the grading decision-making of Iranian English language teachers in terms of the factors used when assigning grades and the rationales behind using those factors. In the preliminary quantitative phase, a questionnaire was issued to 300 secondary school and private institute EFL teachers. Quantitative data analyses showed that teachers attached the most weight to nonachievement factors such as effort, improvement, ability, and participation when determining grades. Next, follow-up interviews were conducted with 30 teachers from the initial sample. The analyses of interview data revealed that teachers assigned hodgepodge grades on five major grounds of learning encouragement, motivation enhancement, lack of specific grading criteria, pressure from stakeholders, and flexibility in grading. Data integration indicated that teacher grading decision-making was influenced by both internal and external factors, with adverse consequences for grading validity. Eliciting explanations for the use of specific grading criteria from the same teachers who utilized those criteria in their grading in a single study added to the novelty of this research. Implications for grade interpretation and use, accountability in classroom assessment, and teachers’ professional development are discussed.

scholarly journals Interculturality in English Language Teaching – A Small Study with Portuguese Teachers

e-TEALS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Ana Ponce de Leão
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Teachers Perceptions

Abstract UNESCO and many other organisations worldwide have been working on approaches in education to develop tolerance, respect for cultural diversity, and intercultural dialogue. Particularly, the Council of Europe has laid out guiding principles in several documents to promote intercultural competence, following Byram’s and Zarate’s efforts in integrating this important component in language education. The commitment to developing the notion of intercultural competence has been so influential that many countries, e.g., Portugal, have established the intercultural domain as a goal in the foreign language curricula. However, this commitment has been questioned by researchers worldwide who consider that action is needed to effectively promote intercultural competence. The research coordinated by Sercu, for example, suggests that, although foreign language teachers are willing to comply with an intercultural dimension, their profile is more compatible with that of a traditional foreign language teacher, rather than with a foreign language teacher, who promotes intercultural communicative competence. In this study, I propose to examine teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about intercultural communicative competence in a cluster of schools in Portugal and compare these findings with Sercu’s study. Despite a twelve-year gap, the present study draws similar conclusions.

Developing English Language Teachers' Professional Capacities through Digital and Media Literacies

2016 ◽  
pp. 414-437
Author(s):  
Lucas Moreira dos Anjos-Santos ◽  
Michele Salles El Kadri ◽  
Raquel Gamero ◽  
Telma Gimenez
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Instructional Material ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
State University ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

This chapter aims to demonstrate how a group of educators from a southern Brazilian state university designed and implemented formative workshops to sustain English language teachers' professional development through digital and media literacies. The chapter maps important changes that have happened in language teacher education in Brazil and the convergences these changes share with digital and media literacies coming from a sociocultural paradigm. It also presents and discusses the extent to which the instructional material the group of educators produced for the continuing education of English language teachers integrated 21st century skills and the standards from the TESOL technology framework. As a way to evaluate the instructional material, the chapter analyzes the representations and identities schoolteachers constructed when engaging with digital and media literacies through the instructional material. The chapter concludes by advocating more social, political and collaborative future research in language teacher education and digital and media literacies.

Teacher Development: Strategies and Perception

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 69-78
Author(s):  
Padam Lal Bharati ◽  
Subas Chalise
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Teachers Professional Development ◽  
Clear Idea

Aspects of teachers’ professional development in general and EFL teachers in non-English speaking countries in particular are issues that warrant constant research. Although these are widely researched areas internationally, within Nepal grounded professional development studies have been sparsely carried out. A considerable section of practicing English language teachers has no clear idea of the issue although it directly concerns themselves. Against this backdrop, this article explores some EFL teachers’ perception on the concept of teacher development in a relatively sophisticated centrally located town of Nepal.The Saptagandaki Journal Vol.8 2017: 69-78

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