scholarly journals A comparative study on the challenges of developing the writing skill: english language and nahuatl language

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-25
Author(s):  
Edgar ROMÁN ◽  
Verónica RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
Jorge MARTÍNEZ ◽  
Karla MATA

The aim of this research work is to detect challenges that English and Nahuatl learners face when developing writing skills during first level in order to suggest strategies for implementing in future studies. The importance of comparing both languages is because Nahuatl is considered as an endangered language and English has significant pedagogy for the teaching-learning process. Therefore, it is expected that some methodologies can complement each other. The following results were obtained using a qualitative case study since it is allowed to explore and identify different factors that have the same purpose. In this case, there was a comparison between English and Nahuatl learners to determine the main challenges in both situations. Hence, 2 groups were selected for being observed and interviewed: an English class and a Nahuatl class. In addition, this research was designed for being carried out online due to the Covid-19 situation that is being lived currently.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Tunku Mohani Tunku Mohtar ◽  
Charanjit Kaur Swaran Singh ◽  
Napisah Kepol ◽  
Ahmad Zainuri Loap Ahmad ◽  
Sasigaran Moneyam

The present study investigated the beliefs and efficacy of a teacher teaching English to students who were weak at the language. The objective of the study was mainly to investigate the beliefs and efficacy of the ESL teacher for teaching writing to weak learners. The research was a case study of the English Language teacher teaching Form Three class of students whose English proficiency was very low. An interview was conducted with the teacher to further probe the instructional strategies applied to enhance her beliefs and efficacy in her own capabilities to make learning happen in her classroom. Observations were made to investigate the teacher’s efficacy in teaching and the performance of the students specifically for writing. Results show the teacher’s beliefs of her students’ capabilities and their language needs helped shape the teacher’s instructional strategies. The teacher’s efficacy enabled her to decide to undertake the task of teaching writing to her students because she was confident in her ability. The teacher provided clues to the students to facilitate their learning. This kind of feedback from the teacher indirectly motivated them to learn. The teacher’s beliefs and efficacy contributed to her teaching practice and the instructional strategies that she used in turn enhanced her beliefs and efficacy. The study implicates that teacher’s beliefs and efficacy can assist the weak learners in improving their writing skills and also facilitate language learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (IV) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
Hina Iqbal ◽  
Muhammad Saeed

Academic writing plays a pivotal role in developing research proposals. The present study aimed to explore the grammatical errors that M.Phil/PhDs scholars commit in academic writing. The present study employed a qualitative case study designed to explore the challenges in the English language faced by the M.Phil and PhDs scholars. The 20 Ph.D. and 36 M.Phil scholars were selected by busing purposive sampling technique. Data were collected by using two self-developed semi-structured interviews protocol. Thematic analysis approach was employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that all the participants reported that correct use of tenses was a big hurdle that entailed the other grammatical mistakes and reduced the report quality because all the lexical aspects are linked with these mechanics. The study recommended that English language courses be offered to postgraduate, M. Phil and Ph.D. scholars to learn the technical aspects of the language and provide students with online interactive programming.


Humaniora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Esti Rahayu ◽  
Shuki Osman

As out-of-field teachers existence led to change in teachers, this research aimed to explore their commitment to learning and teaching, and how their schools supported them. Five Indonesian teachers who started teaching as out-of-field teachers and their school leaders were interviewed for this research. The qualitative case study was employed to explore the problem through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. The findings reveal that the initial commitment to teaching, learning, and growing is an investment for further actions throughout the teaching practice. The schools provide necessary assistance through the induction and during their in-service in the provided and requested professional learning, being trusted and acknowledged by school leaders, and having resourceful colleagues. From their schools’ support, the out-of-field teachers become more knowledgeable and remain as teachers for an extended time.


Author(s):  
Ratnawati Ratnawati

Writing, one of the four skills which have to be taught by educators in language learning. Starting from classroom observation implied that students confronted the difficulties in writing involving generating ideas, organizing words, and making compositions. This study supposes to explore some effects of pop culture as authentic materials for English language teaching in improving students’ writing skill. Due to pop culture relates to students’ life and experience, it is considered to be a stimulus for gaining students’ ideas, information, motivation, and interest in teaching writing. The students of secondary school were involved in this study and descriptive case study was employed to observe the importance of pop culture in writing class. Also, questionnaires and students’ works are the instruments to measure its effects. Both students’ works and result of the questionnaires pointed out that significantly improvement obtained after applying pop culture. In line with findings, it can be said that pop cultures have significant effects toward students’ writing skill. So, educators need to apply pop culture as their choices in future planning lesson.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Huong Hoang Le

The study uses a qualitative case study framed within a socio-cultural framework to investigate Vietnamese English language university teachers’ difficulties in their research engagement. The study was conducted among 21 English language university teachers in Hong Duc University in Vietnam. Skype semi-structured interview was employed to collect necessary data to explore teacher participants’ perceived obstacles to research. The findings of the study show that there was a gap between Vietnamese authorities’ expectations of research outputs and the realities of English language university teachers’ research capabilities. Such gap has caused serious challenges to those teachers and prevented them from effectively engaging in research. On the one hand, Vietnamese authorities hope to increase universities’ research output to keep up with the international academic ranking. On the other hand, the working realities of university teachers hinder their engagement in research. However, no official investigation has been done to reduce such gap and the enforcement of research activity in universities has been taken for granted. In this sense, the significance of this study is an opportunity for English language university teachers to voice their opinions about the enforced nature of research activity in universities in Vietnam.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-237
Author(s):  
Rosyanne Louise Autran Lourenço ◽  
Eliana Barbosa dos Santos

Este artigo visa a apresentar, sob uma perspectiva ecológica de letramento, resultados da análise de práticas sociodiscursivas do processo de ensino-aprendizagem de Português Língua de Acolhimento, de imigrantes refugiados no Brasil, realizadas por meio do WhatsApp. Teoricamente, o estudo circunscreve-se às dimensões analíticas de letramento (MOREAU et al., 2013), sob a perspectiva ecológica dos estudos linguísticos (VAN LIER, 2004, 2010), fundamentando-se em pressupostos referentes aos recursos multimodais das tecnologias digitais (LEFFA, 2006; MORAN, 2013) e à função mediadora da linguagem (VIGOTSKI, 1971), em especial, do Português Língua de Acolhimento (BARBOSA; SÃO BERNARDO, 2017) e de suas implicações referentes à noção de afetividade (LEITE, 2012). Metodologicamente, trata-se de estudo qualitativo de caso (STAKE, 1994), de base etnográfica virtual (SANTOS; GOMES, 2013) cuja geração dos dados ocorreu por meio de observação participante (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1998) e notas de campo (FETTERMAN, 1998). Sua relevância reside na urgência no processo de imersão de imigrantes refugiados em práticas sociodiscursivas que viabilizem a obtenção de condições mínimas de vida digna e a garantia de autonomia em sua agência no país de destino (COSTA; TAÑO, 2018). Os resultados da pesquisa sugerem que a abordagem ecológica de práticas de letramento em ambiente virtual amplia a compreensão das articulações inerentes ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas, propiciando ao docente melhores condições de promover a autonomia dos estudantes, em contexto de imigração, na condução de soluções que atendam às suas necessidades mais prementes, voltadas para as práticas sociais de imersão no país de chegada.   This article aims to present, in the light of an ecological perspective of literacy, the results of the analysis of sociodiscursive practices of the teaching-learning process of Portuguese as a Host Language, through WhatsApp by refugee immigrants in Brazil. Theoretically, the study is limited to the ecological perspective of linguistic studies (VAN LIER, 2004, 2010) and analytical literacy dimensions (MOREAU ET AL., 2013) based on assumptions regarding the multimodal resources of digital technologies (LEFFA, 2006; MORAN, 2013) and the mediating function of language (VIGOTSKI, 2009) in particular the Portuguese Host Language (BARBOSA; SÃO BERNARDO, 2017) and its implications regarding the notion of affectivity (LEITE, 2012). Methodologically, it is a qualitative case study (STAKE, 1994) with a virtual ethnographic basis (SANTOS; GOMES, 2013) whose data generation occurred through participant observation (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1998) and field notes (FETTERMAN, 1998). Its relevance resides in the urgency in the process of refugee immigrants sociodiscursive practices that make it possible to obtain minimum conditions of dignified life and guarantee autonomy at their agency in the destination country (COSTA; TAÑO, 2018). The research results suggest that the ecological approach to literacy practices in a virtual environment broadens the understanding of the articulations inherent to the language teaching-learning process, providing the teacher better conditions to promote the autonomy of the students in the context of immigration, in driving solutions that meet their pressing sociodiscursive needs, focused on social immersion practices in the country of arrival.


Author(s):  
Trung Tran ◽  
Hung Anh Phan ◽  
Hong Van Le ◽  
Hung Thanh Nguyen

Competence structure that pre-service teachers need to develop to become a future teachers has been defined since the 1930s. For pre-service mathematics teachers, their competence has its own characteristics. ICT integration in developing competence for pre-service mathematics teachers has been been proved to be effective in many previous studies. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has recommended the use of ICT to enhance teaching-learning activities in schools and universities, therefore, there have been many studies on ICT intergration at different educational levels. However, there are only a few studies on the use ICT integration in developing competence for pre-service mathematics teachers. This paper presents results from a research on the feasibility of ICT integration in developing competence of Vietnamese pre-service mathematics teachers. The research was conducted by surveying on a randomly selected of 297 pre-service mathematics teachers and 40 mathematics lecturers in six universities which provide mathematics training programs. Results show that despite of the availability of technologies, ICT integration in training pre-service teachers is still limited. In addition, ICT integration in teaching activities of mathematics teachers is not really effective because the levels of their ICT skills are very different. Pre-service mathematics teachers have the ability to use ICT equipment, and good accessibility to learning systems, but their use of the learning management systems (LMS) is limited. This study can be a reference for future studies to test the effective of ICT integration in training pre-service teachers when designing activities to develop feasibly and effectively their competence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 00076
Author(s):  
Mozes Kurniawan

Most area of life requires changes. One of the things changes from time to time is learning method or strategy. In educational sector, especially in Teaching English to Speaker of Other Language (TESOL), teachers are demanded to have creative and innovative ways to teach language other than their own mother tongue in order to maintain pupils’ interest, creativity and learning outcomes. One alternative way to teach English is by integrating technology particularly mobile phone. However, there still questions on what is going on if teachers allow student to access mobile phone during class and how it can be done. This study aims to enrich teachers’ knowledge and broaden the paradigm of using mobile learning method serving the digital native generation in TESOL. A reflective analysis was done in collaboration with literature support to provide a clear image of mobile learning done in English class at a particular study program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Indonesia. The result showed that students’ need a transformation of teaching learning process, students can be engaged more actively on learning by using mobile phone and some possible activities are proposed for supporting student-centred instruction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyria Finardi ◽  
Roberta Leao ◽  
Livia Melina Pinheiro

<p class="Normal1">The paper proposes a reflection on the role of English in the globalized world and its teaching/learning in Brazil. With that aim, the study reviews language policies and internationalization programs in Brazil regarding the role of foreign languages in general and of English in particular. The theoretical framework includes a review of an English language teaching (ELT) approach used mainly in Europe, as a result of globalization and internationalization, the Content and Language Integrated Approach (CLIL). In order to support this reflection, a case study was carried out to examine pre-service English teachers’ beliefs on the use of CLIL in Brazil. The results of study show that pre-service English teachers understand the importance of the CLIL approach though they are aware of the various obstacles to its implementation in that context. The study suggests a review of language policies in Brazil so as to ensure a convergence between them and internationalization policies and approaches, at all levels of education. Regarding the ELT approach analyzed, the study concludes that despite the difficulties associated with the implementation of CLIL in Brazil, it represents a relevant alternative in that context.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Asih Santihastuti

<p>The fact that today’s students are mostly equipped with high level of digital literacy encourages English teachers to use the Internet as one of the teaching learning media. Moreover,, the abundance of online materials for EFL students which are easily accessible makes the teachers’ job much easier. However, these advantages do not come alone without any drawbacks that challenge the teachers in implementing effective online teaching-learning activities for the class and get the most of it. This paper highlights the challenges that the teachers face in implementing online learning for general English class during the short semester program and reveals students’ perceptions on it as part of the reflection on the teaching-learning process. The unique characteristic of this program which is run only for one month requires the teacher creatively seeking effective activities for the class in order to meet the program requirement. The class shows that the students’ performance during the online learning is better compared to the offline class. The students become more active as well as enthusiastically involved in posting thread and giving feedback to their classmates’ thread. Although during the process the students show interest in joining the online discussion, the teacher still have difficulty in finding the strategy to measure the effectiveness of this mode of learning. The reflective writing written by the students identify some issues which mostly deal with their impressions in joining the online learning as well as their difficulties in performing during the teaching learning process. Some students even give suggestions for better improvement in the next application of online learning.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><em>online learning, teacher’s reflection, students’ perception, students’ performance.</em></p>


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