scholarly journals In-service Teachers’ Intelligibility and Pronunciation Adjustment Strategies in English Language Classrooms

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsueh Chu Chen

<p>A realistic goal of pronunciation teaching in the second language context is to acquire comfortably intelligible rather than native-like pronunciation. To establish a set of teaching and learning priorities necessary for English teachers and students whose first language is Chinese, the purposes of this study are three fold: (1) Identify the pronunciation aspects that are crucial for intelligible pronunciation in actual second language (L2) Hong Kong (HK) and foreign language mainland (ML) China classrooms from in-service teachers’ points of view; (2) Investigate how teachers help their students successfully understand English classroom input through teachers’ self-reflection on which aspects of their own pronunciation they modify and adapt to make classroom discourse intelligible to students; and (3) explore the most frequently taught pronunciation aspects and the most frequently used pronunciation teaching strategies used by teachers to teach pronunciation in English classrooms. Forty-seven questionnaires were collected and analysed from in-service teachers in primary schools. Four teachers were invited to attend follow-up interviews. In order to further investigate the application of adaptation strategies and pronunciation teaching strategies in real classroom settings, eight classroom videos were collected. The data were triangulated allowing for cross checking.<strong> </strong>The findings will not only help frontline teachers become self-aware of their own pronunciation, rectify students’ recurrent difficulties in using phonological features, and improve mutual intelligibility in English language classrooms but also help explore the ways to integrate phonology courses and pronunciation teaching in second/foreign language teaching and teacher education.</p>

Author(s):  
Parupalli Srinivas Rao

Due to the technological innovations, the twenty-first century has witnessed tremendous changes in all walks of life. The new technology abetted the extant educational system and it gifted the contemporary educational system with a newfangled drift. As a result, there have been several innovations in the field of education and English has no exception. The concept of teaching English has drastically changed and the present generation of teachers as well as the learners depend more on the latest technology that brings a greater change in teaching and learning. In the modern world, the teachers of English have been using a variety of teaching materials in order to satisfy the needs and interests of the learners. In this process, they also go for the authentic materials in addition to the prescribed textbooks with an aim to improve the standards of the learners and to develop their learners’ language skills enormously in the regular English classrooms. According to Peacock (1997), “Authentic materials are more motivating for students, even lower level students, than artificial materials”. Furthermore, Briton (1991 cited in Qura, 2001) states, “Authentic materials relate more closely to learners’ need, for they build a connection between the language classroom and the outside world. The teachers have to use all the available authentic materials such as newspapers, magazines, story books, movies, radio, TV ads, songs, label products, bus or train timetables, realia like phones and dolls so that the learners show more interest towards their leaning. As authentic materials play a vital role in promoting the learners’ learning and creates interests among learners to learn the English language in a natural way with proper motivation, the teachers of English should use these authentic materials in their day-to-day teaching profession. The present paper brings to light to the effective use of authentic materials by the teachers in the English language classrooms. For this purpose, this paper initially discusses the advantages of authentic materials in the field of education. Then this paper brings out the importance of the authentic materials that are used in the English language classrooms. Later, this paper emphasizes primarily on the effective use of the authentic materials and how they assist the teachers in their teaching and also how they help the learners to learn English in a better and easier way. Finally, this paper gives some expedient hints both to the teachers and the learners of English to how improve their teaching and learning skills colossally using the authentic materials in the English classrooms.


Author(s):  
Sagun Shrestha ◽  
Tilly Harrison

Machinima, screencast animated videos made in a virtual world, are still not a very well-known phenomenon, and there has been little reseach in relation to their use as a teaching material in English language classrooms. This study aimed to investigate the potential for and challenges in using machinima in the pre-intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. Bespoke machinima were created for three classes in Nepal, and the lessons using them were observed. Two teachers and four students were given semi-structued interviews, and 20 students were asked to write a reflective note on their impression of the use of machinima. The findings of the study indicate that machinima are distinct from other materials in that they can be contextualized to address the needs, interests, and values of the learners. Student engagement is thus found to have been significantly higher.


Author(s):  
Barnali Chetia ◽  
◽  
Dharna Bhatt ◽  

ESP advocates the designing of special courses instead of one multi-purpose course, to suit the needs of different courses of students. The curriculum of English as a course in Engineering Institutes differs from other disciplines in Arts, Commerce and Science colleges. Use of films as a multimedia tool and as an ESP approach in English classrooms of Engineering Institutes has become inevitable. For many students, films are their initial contact with English-speaking culture and a fun way to relax and also learn at the same time. The present study tries to examine the use of films as a multimedia tool in the English language classrooms of Engineering Institutes of Gujarat. The film Life of Pi by Ang Lee is considered as a major instrument for the present study. The study was conducted on a sample of 315 students pursuing their B.Tech in different Government Engineering colleges of Gujarat, India. The study was accomplished by using the survey and observation method. The survey questionnaire was used as a major instrument for the data collection of the study. The results suggests that Films as a teaching tool motivates student to learn English in second language classrooms and also helps them to understand and enhance their second language skills.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Fofo Lomotey ◽  
Gifty Emma Gyima-Aboagye

<p>The classroom is a place where teachers and their pupils or students engage in interaction in order to promote effective learning. Such interactions can follow different patterns, and one such pattern is the IRF (initiation-response-feedback) exchange structure, developed by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975, 1992). This study examines the use of the IRF exchange pattern as a pedagogical tool in the English language classrooms of some Basic Schools in Pokuase, a town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. It investigates the way teachers and pupils initiate, respond to, and provide feedback for effective language acquisition. In order to achieve this objective, a qualitative case study was adopted to analyze 11 hours and 40 minutes of classroom recordings and 100 minutes of interview data. Results regarding the IRF structure show that the various acts within the initiation move included nomination, directing, and prompting; the acts in the response move were replying and reacting, while the acts within the feedback move were acceptance, praise, criticism, and expansion. This result is an indication that there were more initiation and feedback acts than response acts, suggesting the teachers dominated the use of the exchange pattern, leaving the pupils to only provide responses. Results of the teachers’ role indicate that they are engaging in teacher talk as a way of providing explanation, organizing the lesson, and redirecting learners in the interaction. The teachers also provided prompt guidelines by creating conducive environment for the learners to be able to write, read, also provided specific and individual feedback to either correct learners’ language input or to encourage them to learn more. Based on the results, it is argued that teachers, especially at the basic level, should endeavour to employ the use of the IRF pattern because it has the potential to contribute a great deal to ESL teaching and learning.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0845/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Maria Hidayati ◽  
Evynurul Laily Zen ◽  
Yazid Basthomi

<p>English language classrooms as real language settings provide ample linguistic data, be they produced by the teachers or the students, as there are some interactions in exchanging thoughts, feelings, or ideas. Speech acts theory indicates that in using the language, people not only create an isolated series of sentences, but also carry out actions by either doing something or making others do something. By using classroom observations conducted in twelve English language classrooms, this study seeks to describe types of sentence forms and kinds of strategies used by the teachers in giving order. The findings indicate that the teachers in the Department of English, Universitas Negeri Malang, who are in a position of authority over the students, do not always impose on their students in making them do what the teachers want them to do. Even though the interactions in the classrooms are not equal as the amount of teacher talk dominates the teaching and learning process, the students (as the hearer) are aware that they should adhere to the teachers’ speech acts of ordering to be successful in their study.     <strong></strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><em>English language classrooms, speech acts theory, directives, sentence forms, speech acts strategies. </em></p>


Author(s):  
Gusri Emiyati Ali

The Critical Period Hypothesis by Lenneberg (1976)  states that ages 2 to 12 are ideal ages for achieving foreign language skills such as a native speaker. Based on this hypothesis, the perfect time for children to learn English as a foreign language is in elementary school. Meanwhile, Indonesian government policy through the 2013 curriculum does not require children in primary schools to learn English. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the English learning achievement of students between those who studied and those who did not study English in elementary school. This research is important to be conducted since it can be a reference for the Indonesian government in developing English language teaching and learning policy in elementary schools.  The sample of this research consisted of two groups selected through a purposive sampling technique. They were the groupS of students who studied and who did not study English in elementary school. Data were grouped, presented, and then compared. The results showed that students who studied English in elementary school had better English learning achievement than students who did not study English in elementary school. It is recommended for further related researches to consider many factors those can be influencing the students' English learning achievements such as the English teaching and learning method used by the educators in high school and university, attitudinal factor, and the learning environment. 


Author(s):  
Pradana Akbar Tanjung ◽  
Ashadi Ashadi

ABSTRACTMany EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms all around the globe are full of students with individual differences. Evidently, the students possess individual differences because they come from various settings with diverse backgrounds. The divergences among students might be unique in nature and they could possibly affect the English teaching and learning process. One of the clear examples is the fact that not all learning instructions provided by teachers are effective in accommodating the differences in the classroom. This situation leads to the emergence of implementing differentiated instruction, often believed to be able to give the students equal chances to learn and experience English effectively at their full potential. This library-based paper reviews several previous practices of differentiated instruction in English classrooms. Further, it attempts to examine how differentiated instruction has been implemented in various EFL contexts. It also attempts to reveal the fundamental reasons behind the success of differentiated instruction in the many English classrooms by relating theories and practices of the previous research studies focused on the topic. This paper ends with a summary of the various findings and discusses it in the light of theories and literatures in differentiated instruction with a particular interest in EFL settings.


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