scholarly journals Teachers and Students’ Attitudes towards the Integration of the Target Culture in the English as a Foreign Language Class: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-266
Author(s):  
Simon Pierre DABOU ◽  
Abdelhak HAMMOUDI ◽  
Romaissa CHIBANI
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Target Culture

Language and culture are like two sides of the same coin, the music on a radio or the soul in a body. The two are so interrelated that separating them is almost impossible. Therefore, teaching a foreign language implies integrating the target culture. In this context, this study aimed to investigate teachers and students’ attitudes towards the integration of the English culture in the EFL curriculum at the University of Sétif 2.  A Semi-structured interview with six English language teachers and a questionnaire to 53 third-year English students were the tools used to collect the necessary data. The analysis of the data showed that all the teachers were for the integration of the target culture in the EFL classes. The study also revealed that students who had positive attitudes towards the target culture represented only 28% of the sample. Therefore, the researchers suggested that the concept of target culture be properly defined within the EFL class and appropriately approached to sustain interest. Moreover, teachers are encouraged to integrate certain aspects of the target culture, such as language, norms, and values, to avoid misunderstanding, and respect each other’s cultural rights.

scholarly journals Teachers' and students' attitudes towards reading and writing: Do they correlate to students' achievement in English?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Titus Terver Udu
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
Attitudes Towards Reading

This survey tested the null hypothesis that teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards reading and writing do not simultaneously predict students’ achievement in the English language. The researcher utilized a sample of 38 teachers and 492 senior secondary school students from 12 schools in Benue State, Nigeria, for the study. The researcher developed and utilized the English Language Students’ Attitude Scale (ELSAS), English Language Teachers’ Attitude Scale (ELTAS), and Reading and Writing Achievement Test (RWAT) for data collection. An estimate of internal consistency was obtained through Cronbach’s Alpha and Kuder Richardson’s reliability methods and found to be 0.76 for ELSAS, 0.68 for ELTAS, and 0.81 for RWAT. Data analysis was by multiple regression statistics. The findings revealed that both English language teachers and students have a positive attitude towards reading and writing (F3, 492 = 0.160, p0.05) implying that teachers and students’ attitudes towards reading and writing jointly predicted students’ achievement in the English language in senior secondary schools. To conclude, learning would be facilitated if both teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards reading and writing, and this, in turn, could impact the students’ achievement in the English language. It was recommended that teachers should plan reading and writing instruction that can help students develop positive attitudes to these skills and parents should help in the development of these skills at home.

scholarly journals English Language Teachers’ Perspective of Using L1 in TEFL Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yella Dezas Perdani
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
West Java ◽  
English Class ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers

The research discussed the using the first language in teaching a foreign language that had been a debate for language teaching practitioners for decades in language acquisition. The debate was about whether it was all right to use it in a foreign language class or not and how it affected the students’ learning process and result. Because of the pro and cons of using the first language in teaching a foreign language, the research was conducted to find out the use of the first language in teaching English as a foreign language. The research aimed to discover to what extent and in which instances L1 was used by the teachers in their English teaching class in terms of the teaching stages, including pre-teaching, whilst-teaching, and post-teaching in the classroom. The research also searched teachers’ perspectives and reasons for using L1 in their English class. Moreover, the research used a qualitative method to gathered information from the participants. The participants were four English teachers who taught English at senior high school in Bandung-West Java province, Majalengka-West Java province, Pangkal Pinang- Bangka Province, and Kuok-Riau Province. The collections of the data were questionnaires and interviews. The findings show that most teachers use Indonesian as L1 in the whilst-teaching stage when they deliver the materials. They use L1 to clarify the students’ understanding of the materials given and explain English language concepts, grammatical concepts, and difficult words. They argue that using L1 helps both teachers and students in teaching and learning English as a foreign language.

scholarly journals Pronunciation Errors of Letter “G” in English Language Made by Saudi Undergraduate Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Alqunayeer
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Loan Words ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Academic Year

The primary goal of the present study is to identify the problematic areas in the pronunciation of the letter “g” in English written words made by Saudi female learners of English as a foreign language, and the reasons for the weakness associated with mispronunciation of English written words which contain this letter. The population of the study was the female students (90 students) and their English language teachers (12 teachers) at the Qassim University during the academic year (2014-2015). There were two types of instruments used in this study. The first was a pronunciation test for the student participants in order to investigate the problematic areas of pronouncing “g” in different environments in different words; and the second a questionnaire for the teacher participants to provide comprehensive data about the causes of these errors of pronouncing “g” committed by EFL female students at Qassim University. Ninety female students were included for the pronunciation test and 12 teachers were asked to answer the questionnaire. Simple percentage was used for analyzing the data of recording words (pronunciation test). Results of the students’ recording words revealed that the participants mispronounced “g” before nasals (68%). According to the results of the teachers’ responses to the questionnaire suggested many factors that can cause difficulties for students in terms of pronouncing “g” in English written words. According to them, these difficulties are concerned with reading difficulties, nonstandard spellings, letters that follow “g” (many of them may become combinations), loan words, orthography (no correspondence between the English alphabets and their sounds). The researcher offers recommendations that might help teachers and students to overcome and reduce these mispronunciations of this letter in English written words.

scholarly journals English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners’ Perceptions on the Effectiveness of the Internet to Enhance their Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Ziad Abdulrahman Al-Muwallad
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
The Internet ◽  
King Saud University ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Preparatory Year

This study attempted to investigate the vital role of the internet in enhancing the learning of reading. In addition, the study aimed to measure the students’ attitudes towards the internet and to identify to what extent the internet was employed in their reading classes. Moreover, the study aimed to explore the challenges that they encountered while using the internet in their learning of reading. In order to achieve these goals, the researcher used the descriptive analytical approach and used the questionnaire as the main data collection tool. The study sample comprised 50 Saudi EFL male students in the preparatory year at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. The findings of the study showed that students perceived that the internet is important in the process of reading comprehension learning and teaching with positive attitudes towards the internet. Results showed that the top challenges of using of the internet for reading learning/teaching are lack of students’ knowledge to know what to read on the internet, the short time of the class, and the students’ lack of the skills and knowledge to use the internet for academic purposes. Furthermore, the results showed that the students mostly used the internet for playing games, social networking, and learning vocabulary. It is recommended that English language teachers should be encouraged to use the internet in their language classes as it is valuable for their students to enhance their reading comprehension skills.

Integrating Culture in Language Classrooms

2017 ◽  
pp. 579-602
Author(s):  
Aslı Akyüz ◽  
Ayfer Tanış ◽  
Eftima Khalil ◽  
Özdenur Ardıç ◽  
Enisa Mede
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Preparatory Programs ◽  
Target Culture

Language and culture go hand in hand. Naturally, they are intertwined and inseparable from one another. Therefore, language teachers who are teaching the language itself also need to recognize the importance of integrating culture in their teaching practices and raise the awareness of the learners about the culture that the target language belongs to. In light of these observations, the present chapter aims to find out whether technology is an effective tool to integrate culture in language classrooms as well as identify the perceptions of teachers and students about learning and teaching the target language through culture. The participants were 153 students and 26 teachers enrolled in a language preparatory program at a public university in Turkey. While the quantitative data were collected through the Target Culture Knowledge Test, the qualitative data were collected by means of in-depth interviews in semi-structured design. The results of the study revealed that technology (i.e., videos) is an effective tool to provide students with background information about the target culture. The findings also reported positive perceptions towards learning and teaching the target language through culture. Based on the findings, this study can contribute to the program developers and teacher educators for the development of quality in teaching and learning in language preparatory programs.

scholarly journals Classroom Code Switching of English Language Teachers at Tertiary Level: A Bangladeshi Perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 40-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nargis Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
English Language ◽  
Survey Result ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Class Room

Classroom code switching is a common scenario in many multi lingual and multicultural classes. In a monolingual country like Bangladesh, classroom code switching has some distinctive attributes. As a part of the global transformation in the methods and techniques of English language teaching, we need to consider classroom code switching as a fact which cannot be ignored in any way especially in a country like Bangladesh where English is taught as a foreign language. In most of the cases Bangladeshi students tend to switch codes, but it is also common in teachers’ discourse. This paper aims to focus on the reasons for teachers’ code switching and the attitude of the teachers and students towards classroom code switching. A survey was conducted for data collection where two different sets of questionnaires were used for teachers and students. 20 English language teachers and 37 undergrad students from different universities participated in the survey. The findings of the survey result in identifying the reasons for teachers’ code switching like ease of communication, explanation, maintaining discipline in the classroom, translation of the unknown terms etc. On the other hand, although many teachers consider that they should not switch codes in the class room, students possess a positive attitude towards it. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14462 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 40-61

scholarly journals A Case Study on the Problems and Suggestions in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning at Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menderes Unal ◽  
Elif Ilhan
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Training System ◽  
Language Teachers

This study explores and identifies some reasons for the problems of foreign language learning (English) and teaching from the perspective of instructors and learners using the case study model. The data of the study was gathered by a semi-structured interview form, and the study group of the research was composed of English language instructors and graduate students at Ahi Evran University. Random sampling method was used to determine 15 instructors and 20 graduate students to face-to-face interview, and the data of the study was analysed by content analysis method, which the students and instructors agreed on students who have been problematic in language learning process. In addition to students, examination systems, instructional programs, language teachers’ qualifications and learning environments have been considered as barriers to language learning. On the other hand, students and instructors suggested starting learning/teaching English earlier, much more practice and exams on all four skills; elective courses; more practice and communication; revisions in teacher training system, considering individual differences; motivating and encouraging students; and designing well equipped language environment and teaching materials.

scholarly journals The Benefits of Backward Design in the English as a Foreign Language Context

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158
Author(s):  
Carlos Lenin Alvarez Llerena
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Design Model ◽  
Backward Design ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Instructional Processes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Context

ABSTRACTThe Backward Design Model (BDM) is a curriculum approach in language teaching, which begins with the specification of learning outcomes that are the basis for developing instructional processes and input (Richards, 2013). This study aims to display a theoretical analysis of how the integration of the BDM has impacted English as a Foreign Language class. Thus, this study provides the results of reviewing research-based articles about how the integration of the BDM has benefited EFL teachers and students. These benefits are related to the main elements of the BDM, namely, designing learning to provide enduring understandings, assessing students’ performance based on acceptable evidence, and planning learning experiences and instructions based on desirable outcomes. The results indicated that the BDM indeed brought benefits to EFL teachers and students, revealing that this model's efficient application can help (a) teachers better understand the procedural knowledge of learning and (b) students improve their English language skills.ABSTRAKBackward Design Model merupakan pendekatan kurikulum dalam pengajaran bahasa yang diawali dengan spesifikasi hasil belajar yang menjadi dasar untuk pegembangan proses dan masukan pembelajaran (Richards, 2013). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menampilkan analisis teoritis tentang bagaimana integrasi Backward Design Model (BDM) berdampak pada kelas bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing. Penelitian ini merupakan hasil dari telaah artikel berbasis penelitian tentang bagaimana integrasi BDM bermanfaat bagi para guru dan siswa EFL. Manfaat ini berkaitan dengan elemen utama BDM yaitu merancang pembelajaran untuk pemahaman yang bertahan lama, penilaian kinerja siswa berdasarkan bukti yang dapat diterima, dan merencanakan pengalaman dan instruksi pembelajaran berdasarkan hasil yang diinginkan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa BDM memang membawa manfaat bagi para guru dan siswa. Hasil penelitian juga mengungkapkan bahwa penerapan model yang efisien ini membantu para guru untuk memiliki pemahaman yang lebih baik tentang pengetahuan prosedural pembelajaran dan juga membantu siswa untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbahasa Inggris mereka.

scholarly journals Teaching ESP at the Tertiary Level in Bangladesh: A General Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 76-88
Author(s):  
Sharmin Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Workplace Needs ◽  
General Perspective

English is a foreign language in Bangladesh, and the tertiary students of private universities of different departments come with different vocational needs. General English courses cannot cater to the specific needs of the students of different departments. Moreover, at a tertiary level, English language courses should be designed not only to help students receive good grades, but also cater to their future workplace needs. In these cases, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is more applicable than General English language courses. On the other hand, teaching ESP courses is more challenging and difficult than teaching General English courses. The article aims to characterize ESP, analysing its need in Bangladesh and identifying teachers’ roles in its teaching. A survey was conducted for data collection in which two different sets of questionnaires were used for teachers and students. Twenty English language teachers and 64 undergrad students from the Department of Civil Engineering from different universities participated in the survey. Results of the survey have been presented with some recommendations for its pedagogic management.Journal of NELTA ,  Vol. 22, No. 1-2, 2017 December, Page: 76-88 

scholarly journals The impact of CLIL implementation on Lebanese students’ attitudes and performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Badrie ELDaou ◽  
Abir Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
And Performance ◽  
First Year University ◽  
The Impact

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has been verified as an effective pedagogical approach by a lot of research studies carried out in many European countries. However, modest attempts have been made to prove its efficacy in Lebanon, where English Language is taught in many schools and universities as a first foreign language. The participants (n = 21) were first year university students enrolled in the Faculty of Pedagogy at the Lebanese University and majoring in teaching Math at elementary schools. Quantitative as well as qualitative data were collected by means of two questionnaires, pre-post tests and reflection logs. Descriptive statistics were calculated and a series of t-tests were conducted in order to address the questions raised in the study. The results of the study showed positive attitudes of students towards the implementation of CLIL and they revealed the efficacy of CLIL as a pedagogical approach in enhancing students’ self-efficacy and academic performance. Keywords: CLIL implementation, self-efficacy, attitude, academic achievement.

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