scholarly journals A Preliminary Exploration of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Intercultural Communication through ELF

EL LE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Maria De Bartolo
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
Initial Results

The present paper draws attention to the intercultural nature of English used as a lingua franca in flexible, dynamic and evolving communicative settings and consequently, to the need for language teachers to become aware of the multifaceted English world, where goals and purposes for using English are constantly challenged and re-created. Drawing on the connection between Intercultural communication research and ELF findings, the paper aims to provide empirically-grounded suggestions for language teachers in the hope to stimulate reflections on the role of intercultural aspects in classroom approaches and therefore, encourage to incorporate ELF-oriented pedagogies in well-established teaching practices. In light of a theoretical background, an exploration of language teachers’ attitudes towards ELF and intercultural issues will be conducted and the initial results of a preliminary study presented. Finally, implications for language teaching will be offered.

Teachers' Attitudes Toward ELF (English as Lingua Franca) in the UAE and Georgia

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar MIKELADZE ◽  
Khalid AL-HARIRI
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
The Status ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Attitudes

The paper introduces a preliminary study of teachers’ awareness and attitudes toward ELF in two different language contexts, where English has the status of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The exploratory study was based on the survey method and an online questionnaire was completed by 20 teachers from each region in July-August, 2016. Participants reported on their attitudes toward ELF, beliefs on Standard English, opinions on widespread of English, etc. The data obtained on Standard English within this research are broadly consistent with the trend of the inner circle. The results have indicated that ELF is a crucial topic for both regions and it is noteworthy to provide future English language teachers with expertise on ELF and the ways of its incorporation in language courses. 

Teachers' Professional Development in the Digitized World

2016 ◽  
pp. 145-154
Author(s):  
Emsal Ates Ozdemir ◽  
Kenan Dikilitaş
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Constructivist Learning Theory ◽  
Personal Meanings ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

Professional development for in-service English language teachers has increasingly become a need in higher education not only in Turkey but across the world. Due to the limited time teachers have and the distance between the source of service and the potential participants, using digitized activities and materials have naturally become a necessity. The purpose of this research is to report the potential impact of the course described below and discuss the role of blended learning experience of professional development on the participating teachers. The theoretical background of the study is experiential learning initiated by Kolb and socio-constructivist learning theory by Vygotsky in that both theories highlight the role of experiencing the change and focus on personal meanings and learning with and from others in real and online environments.

Teachers' Professional Development in the Digitized World

2016 ◽  
pp. 681-691
Author(s):  
Emsal Ates Ozdemir ◽  
Kenan Dikilitaş
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Constructivist Learning Theory ◽  
Personal Meanings ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

Professional development for in-service English language teachers has increasingly become a need in higher education not only in Turkey but across the world. Due to the limited time teachers have and the distance between the source of service and the potential participants, using digitized activities and materials have naturally become a necessity. The purpose of this research is to report the potential impact of the course described below and discuss the role of blended learning experience of professional development on the participating teachers. The theoretical background of the study is experiential learning initiated by Kolb and socio-constructivist learning theory by Vygotsky in that both theories highlight the role of experiencing the change and focus on personal meanings and learning with and from others in real and online environments.

Interpreting in Tanzania from the perspective of Tanzanian interpreters

Babel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Getta
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The One

Abstract The study overviews the role of interpreting services in Tanzania, presenting mainly the experience of practicing freelance interpreters. The two official languages of Tanzania – English and Swahili – have separate roles in the country. Although most Tanzanians accept English as a necessary medium of intercultural communication, Swahili is perceived as an important part of Tanzanian national identity. It is the country’s lingua franca. On the one hand, Tanzania aims to preserve communication in Swahili; on the other hand, there is an inevitable need for intercultural communication with the rest of the world that grows especially in the context of globalization. The paper focuses on the role, status, education, working languages, conditions of Tanzanian interpreters, and the requirements of local and international clients. The study also creates a broader context that mentions crucial historical moments that have influenced the country’s current character of intercultural communication.

scholarly journals “Nativeness” and Intelligibility: Impacts of Intercultural Experience Through English as a Lingua Franca on Chinese Speakers’ Language Attitudes

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Wang ◽  
Jennifer Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Communicative Effectiveness

AbstractThis paper investigates the impacts of intercultural experience through English as a lingua franca (ELF) on language attitudes, with the focus on Chinese Speakers’ narratives of ELF experience in relation to their views of Englishes. The data retrieved through 769 questionnaires and 35 interviews with Chinese users of English revealed the impacts in four aspects. First, the lack of ELF experience helps to maintain the assumption that conformity to native English is necessary for interactants to understand each other. Second, ELF experience triggers the question about the exclusive connection between nativeness and intelligibility. Third, it raises challenges to the exclusive relevance of native English for successful intercultural communication. Fourth, it helps to develop an awareness of intercultural communication strategies as important for communicative effectiveness in the context of the diversity of English. Attitudes revealed in the four aspects all point to a concern with the issue what is intelligible English. This paper thus discusses intelligibility in relation to (non-) nativeness and the role of intercultural experience in making sense of the issue of intelligibility, which leads to the exploration of pedagogical implications of this study.

A comparison of spoken and signed lingua franca communication: the case of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and International Sign (IS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-208
Author(s):  
Lisa Bierbaumer
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Interaction Processes ◽  
Specific Sign

Abstract This article explores similarities between English as a lingua franca (ELF) and International Sign (IS), two lingua franca phenomena which in the last decades have been subject to increasing, albeit independent, linguistic research. In contrast to spoken intercultural communication, in which English often represents a shared resource that speakers from different linguacultural backgrounds draw on, in the visual-gestural modality no specific sign language has yet gained such global reach. Instead, in many international contexts IS is used: a lingua franca that can be more or less conventionalized and that is not based on one particular sign language. IS use depends on the communicative situation, in which signers flexibly and creatively use different signs from natural sign languages as well as iconic elements and gestures. Despite overt formal differences between ELF and IS, when focusing on the actual communication process, rather than the forms that result from it, the two lingua franca phenomena share many similarities. In fact, both ELF and IS are variable communicative means that get situationally adapted by speakers and signers on the basis of different resources they have at their disposal. Similar discussions about the difficulty of conceptualizing ELF and IS, about the role of multilingual resources, and about interaction processes at play can thus be found in both ELF and IS literature. This insight opens up new possibilities for researchers in the two fields to mutually benefit from the study of lingua franca communication in the other modality, which prompts the need for a cross-modal collaboration between ELF and IS researchers.

Iranian Instructors’ Practices and Criteria for Teaching English Translation

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 622
Author(s):  
Elham Heidari ◽  
Bahram Mowlaie
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Made In

Concerning the significant role of translation as a significant field which contributes to intercultural communication, assigning valid criteria for teaching translation is necessary to make sure that the best practices are employed by instructors’ to teach translation skills. This, in return, would help translation students be equipped with better translation skills. However, little research has been conducted to see what training practices translation instructors employ in their translation training classrooms. More significantly, it has been little research to determine the criteria that are behind the practices instructors employ in their translation training classroom. The purpose of the current research was to determine what practices instructors follow in their English translation classrooms and what criteria are behind these practices. To serve this purpose, the classrooms of ten English translation instructors were observed in an Iranian academic context using an observation checklist. Subsequently, the instructors were asked to write about the criteria behind their teaching practices in an open-ended questionnaire. The results of the study showed that the instructors’ practices were consistent with some of the principles made in the literature an inconstant with others. The instructors referred to the criteria behind the translation teaching practices they employed in their classrooms. Implications that these findings have for the field of translation are presented and some suggestions for further research in this area are given.

scholarly journals POLITYCZNA POPRAWNOŚĆ DYSKURSU EDUKACYJNEGO: NAUCZYCIEL JĘZYKA OBCEGO W PRZECIWDZIAŁANIU MOWIE NIENAWIŚCI

Neofilolog ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Hadrian Lankiewicz ◽  
Anna Szczepaniak-Kozak
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Pedagogical Discourse ◽  
Long Run

This paper presents an attempt to reconsider the concept of intercultural communication and related competences taking into account the fact that intercultural contacts may be motivated by racism and xenophobia. It is the outgrowth of the RADAR project (Regulating Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism) funded by the European Commission1. Here, we aim to apply its findings to the context of developing politically correct pedagogical discourse among prospective foreign language teachers. Ultimately, invoking the notion of critical ecological language awareness (Lankiewicz, 2015) and metalinguistic awareness (Karpińska-Musiał, 2015), we offer to supplement the intercultural component of teacher education with the element of critical linguistics, which may help would-be teachers, in the first place, to be more aware language users as such, not to commit verbal offences, and, in the long-run, to perform the role of transformative intellectuals (Kumaravadivelu, 2012), thus contributing to the quality of life in the globalization era.

scholarly journals The Role of Motivational Teaching Strategies Used by English Language Teachers in Urdu Medium Secondary Schools in Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 343
Author(s):  
Muhammad Asif Saleem ◽  
Mamuna Ghani
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers

A number of strategies are used by English language teachers to get the desired outcomes from the language learners. The strategies prove useful when implemented in accordance with the level of the students and the environment of the L2 classroom. The prime focus of the teachers is to keep the learners motivated in learning English language. This particular research is conducted with the objectives and reasons for which the English teachers in Urdu medium secondary schools and students make use of motivational teaching strategies in their L2 classroom and similarly to indicate the situations where these strategies would be more helpful and crucial. Interview questions were distributed among English teachers and the students of matriculation. They were asked to read the questions and spell comprehensive answers. A comparison is made between the results obtained by the answers of Urdu medium secondary schools’ teachers and students. The data were collected and interpreted qualitatively that reflected the views of teachers and students of Urdu medium schools about the use of motivational teaching practices in ELT classroom in relation to students’ proficiency of L2 learning.

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