scholarly journals Critical environmental education in tertiary English language teaching (ELT): A collaborative digital storytelling project

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Gusti Agung Paramitha Eka Putri
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Digital Stories

Environmental issues have recently been incorporated into English materials. Hundreds of ELT materials concerning environmental issues are available worldwide in mainstream or assigned coursebooks and may simply be adapted by teachers for their classroom use. To respond to this, the present study explores an initial endeavor to integrate critical environmental education into ELT in a higher education context. In this study, a collaborative digital storytelling project was enacted. Student teachers created digital stories about Subak, their local environment, to evaluate its problems and propose solutions to the problems. Data gleaned from a questionnaire, an interview, and digital stories were thematically analyzed. Findings indicate that digital storytelling served as a multidimensional platform for student teachers to explore economic, political, and social aspects linked to subak. Thus, their digital stories could be considered as authentic materials for environmental education. This suggests that digital storytelling (DST) is a form of a powerful campaign against environmental destruction. The main contributions of this article are to provide empirical evidence regarding the implementation of a collaborative DST project in higher education and to show pedagogical implications for English language teaching (ELT) and critical environmental pedagogy.

scholarly journals Arab English Language Teaching Candidates Climbing the IELTS Mountain: A Qualitatively Driven Hermeneutic Phenomenology Study

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Al-Issa ◽  
Ali Al-Bulushi ◽  
Rima Al-Zadjali
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenology ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Structured Interviews

As a high-stakes international language proficiency benchmark, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requires different and special Language Learning Strategies (LLS), which pose numerous challenges to its takers. Some Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT), have therefore, failed to achieve an overall score of Band 6 on the IELTS as a language proficiency requirement and a condition mandated by the Ministry of Education for selecting English language teachers among. This qualitatively driven hermeneutic phenomenology study, hence, discusses this issue from an ideological perspective. The study triangulates data from semi-structured interviews made with six fourth-year ELT Student Teachers (STs) at SQU and the pertinent literature. The critical discussion revealed various ideologies about the powerful impact of the IELTS on the STs’ English language development. The findings have important implications for the practices of the teachers in the Omani ELT school system and elsewhere.

scholarly journals Effects of Digital Short Stories on the Development of Listening Skills: An Action Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 65-84
Author(s):  
Zeynep Çetin Köroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Listening Skills

Literary texts can be used to improve language learners' skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening because these texts contain rich vocabulary, complex grammar structures, interesting plot and most importantly imagination of the author. However, using literature for language teaching purposes is a controversial issue among scholars. While some researchers think positively, others have negative views on the subject. Learners' needs and way of using literary texts are the main concerns of literature use in language pedagogy. In this context, the present research aimed to find out whether digital short stories can improve language learners' listening skills. The purpose of this study was to figure out student teachers' perceptions of digital short stories’ implementation into language classrooms. Specifically, the current research aimed to investigate whether digital short stories are useful to develop language learners' listening skills in English. The research is action research in design. The study used pre-test and post-test, a written structured interview to collect data and it included both quantitative and qualitative components. The interview consisted of six open-ended questions. Achievement tests and t-test were used to analyze quantitative data. On the other hand, content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The data were collected in 2016-2017 academic years, Bayburt University. Participants were prep class students of English language teaching department of Bayburt University. In the treatment process, digital short stories were used for eight weeks, which were written by various famous American authors and voice recorded by various American natives. Additionally, weekly worksheets and handouts were prepared by the researcher. Results showed that digital short stories provide satisfactory content, supports vocabulary learning, improves language learners’ listening skills, helps participants to gain familiarity with complex grammar structures and makes students more familiar with different cultures. Furthermore, participants are satisfied with digital short stories and they think these digital stories are useful to improve their listening skills.

Becoming a process drama practitioner: An exploratory study of higher education language teachers in Japan

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110609
Author(s):  
Kim Murray ◽  
José Reis-Jorge ◽  
Julie-Anne Regan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Process Drama ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Japanese Higher Education

Research in language learning indicates that process drama (PD), an educational approach where students and teachers work in and out of role to explore themes and issues, can be well suited to the Japanese higher education (HE) context. Despite the benefits highlighted in the literature, PD remains a niche approach to language teaching and learning, with a limited number of practitioners in Japan. This study seeks to uncover language teachers’ experiences of becoming Process Drama Practitioners (PDPs) and using and sharing PD as an English language teaching approach in Japanese HE. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with six experienced PDPs. The findings indicate that prior positive experiences with drama was an encouraging factor of the adoption and self-directed initial use of PD in their teaching practices. Positive student outcomes and feedback were primary motivators for continued use of PD. Experiences of sharing PD led to a perceived need to distinguish PD from theatre-based approaches and establish connections to familiar approaches to language teaching.

English Language Learning as Intercultural Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Hamza R'boul ◽  
M Camino Bueno-Alastuey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Intercultural Relations ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
The University ◽  
Teaching In Higher Education

Teaching English in higher education entails additional factors and considerations that exemplify the complexity of accounting for the diverse population in modern higher education institutions. In particular, the increasing flow of international students and the employment demands of functioning in multicultural contexts render helping students to develop a critical understating of intercultural relations an important aspect of English language teaching. With the increasing adoption of English as a medium of instruction and its use as a lingua franca in intercultural communication, it is important to structure English education in a way that accounts for intercultural relations both in and outside the university. In addition to the postmodern conceptualizations of interculturality that emphasize the fluidity of culture, language and identity intercultural relations are characterized by power imbalances. That is why this chapter makes a case for the necessity of considering sociopolitical realities in intercultural English language teaching in higher education.

scholarly journals Teaching Speaking in the Nepalese Context: Problems and Ways of Overcoming them

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bal Ram Adhikari
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Learner Centered ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
Meaningful Interaction

Fluency-first approaches such as Communicative Language Teaching and Task-based Language Teaching aim at the development of communicative competence in students by engaging them in meaningful interaction. Ability to speak accurate, appropriate and effective English is vital for meaningful interaction that ensures students' communicative competence in English. Unfortunately, in the Nepalese context, especially in government-aided schools and constituent colleges of Tribhuvan University (TU), speaking skill lies on the periphery of English Language Teaching (ELT) owing to several factors. This article attempts to explore those factors that have been a hindrance in developing speaking skill in Nepalese students in general and the students from the above-mentioned institutions in particular. This article draws on the author's experience as a supervisor of student teachers from B.Ed. and M.Ed. programmes and his teaching experience at a constituent campus of TU. Moreover, the article presents some suggestions that can help English teachers to overcome the hindrances.Key words: Speaking skill; Interaction; Teacher-fronted teaching; Learner-centered activitiesJournal of NELTA Vol. 15 No. 1-2 December 2010Page: 1-9Uploaded date: 3 May, 2011DOI: 10.3126/nelta.v15i1-2.4602

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