The teaching and learning of listening and vocabulary in EFL classes at a Chinese university

<p><b>Listening is an important skill for second language learners of any language. To develop listening skills effectively, research suggests using a more process-oriented than product-oriented approach to teaching listening. That is, placing greater emphasis on developing learner awareness and strategic competence than on answering listening comprehension questions. The present study investigates how listening is taught by two teachers in the context of Chinese tertiary English foreign language (EFL) classes, where listening tends to be taught as a discreet skill. Another focus of the research is how the relationship between vocabulary and listening is understood and addressed in this context. While it is well known that vocabulary knowledge is needed for and can be learnt through listening, less is known about how the vocabulary support is provided and vocabulary knowledge is gained in such listening classes.</b></p> <p>This research involved three main areas of investigation. The first area investigated the teaching of listening. It involved a content analysis of listening materials in the textbook (e.g., listening texts and listening activities), followed by classroom observations of listening instruction practices, and post-lesson interviews with the teachers and their learners about their beliefs about teaching and learning listening. Findings showed that a product-oriented approach dominated the textbook materials, the classroom practices and the beliefs of the teachers and learners.</p> <p>The second area concerns the vocabulary demands of these listening classes. This involved a corpus-based analysis of the frequency and kinds of vocabulary in the textbook, followed by measurement of the learners’ vocabulary size (i.e., the Vocabulary Size Test by Nation & Beglar, 2007) and knowledge (i.e., a recognition task in the Yes/No format). The corpus analyses results showed that: (1) vocabulary knowledge of 3000-word families was required to comprehend the textbook; (2) high frequency vocabulary made up the majority of the words in the textbook. The VST results showed that, on average, the learners’ written receptive size ranged from 5000 to 7000-word families. The pre-lesson Yes/No task results showed that the students had difficulty recognizing a substantial number of the words they met in the textbook.</p> <p>The third area investigated the nature of vocabulary support and vocabulary learning in the listening class. Firstly, an analysis of the teachers’ classroom practices from observation data relating to vocabulary was carried out. Secondly, interview data from the teachers was examined for evidence of their beliefs about vocabulary and listening. Thirdly, post-lesson interview data with learners and data from a post-test repeat of the vocabulary recognition task were examined to find out more about the learners’ perceptions of vocabulary in listening class and the vocabulary learning gains they made in these classes. Findings revealed that the learners relied on the glossaries to prepare for listening classes. They also expected vocabulary instruction from the teachers, so long as it did not distract from listening activity completion. Both teachers primarily used translation to provide vocabulary support, but differed markedly in the amount of vocabulary support they provided. In both classes, significant vocabulary gains were found in a comparison of the pre-and-post lesson Yes/No task results. The vocabulary-related episodes in the listening classes were a notable influence on these learning gains.</p> <p>This research has pedagogical implications for the EFL listening classroom. The findings highlight the mutually reinforcing influences of textbook design and teacher beliefs on how listening is taught. These influences, in turn, shape how learners perceive the process of developing their L2 listening skills. With respect to vocabulary and listening, the findings also suggest that even where the lexical demands of listening appear to be well within the vocabulary level of the learners, there is considerable potential for vocabulary learning from listening classes. Teachers and learners alike are likely to benefit from systematically building on this potential. Future research could further investigate L2 learners’ behaviors and perceptions in the listening class, and examine their vocabulary knowledge in the spoken form.</p>

The teaching and learning of listening and vocabulary in EFL classes at a Chinese university

<p><b>Listening is an important skill for second language learners of any language. To develop listening skills effectively, research suggests using a more process-oriented than product-oriented approach to teaching listening. That is, placing greater emphasis on developing learner awareness and strategic competence than on answering listening comprehension questions. The present study investigates how listening is taught by two teachers in the context of Chinese tertiary English foreign language (EFL) classes, where listening tends to be taught as a discreet skill. Another focus of the research is how the relationship between vocabulary and listening is understood and addressed in this context. While it is well known that vocabulary knowledge is needed for and can be learnt through listening, less is known about how the vocabulary support is provided and vocabulary knowledge is gained in such listening classes.</b></p> <p>This research involved three main areas of investigation. The first area investigated the teaching of listening. It involved a content analysis of listening materials in the textbook (e.g., listening texts and listening activities), followed by classroom observations of listening instruction practices, and post-lesson interviews with the teachers and their learners about their beliefs about teaching and learning listening. Findings showed that a product-oriented approach dominated the textbook materials, the classroom practices and the beliefs of the teachers and learners.</p> <p>The second area concerns the vocabulary demands of these listening classes. This involved a corpus-based analysis of the frequency and kinds of vocabulary in the textbook, followed by measurement of the learners’ vocabulary size (i.e., the Vocabulary Size Test by Nation & Beglar, 2007) and knowledge (i.e., a recognition task in the Yes/No format). The corpus analyses results showed that: (1) vocabulary knowledge of 3000-word families was required to comprehend the textbook; (2) high frequency vocabulary made up the majority of the words in the textbook. The VST results showed that, on average, the learners’ written receptive size ranged from 5000 to 7000-word families. The pre-lesson Yes/No task results showed that the students had difficulty recognizing a substantial number of the words they met in the textbook.</p> <p>The third area investigated the nature of vocabulary support and vocabulary learning in the listening class. Firstly, an analysis of the teachers’ classroom practices from observation data relating to vocabulary was carried out. Secondly, interview data from the teachers was examined for evidence of their beliefs about vocabulary and listening. Thirdly, post-lesson interview data with learners and data from a post-test repeat of the vocabulary recognition task were examined to find out more about the learners’ perceptions of vocabulary in listening class and the vocabulary learning gains they made in these classes. Findings revealed that the learners relied on the glossaries to prepare for listening classes. They also expected vocabulary instruction from the teachers, so long as it did not distract from listening activity completion. Both teachers primarily used translation to provide vocabulary support, but differed markedly in the amount of vocabulary support they provided. In both classes, significant vocabulary gains were found in a comparison of the pre-and-post lesson Yes/No task results. The vocabulary-related episodes in the listening classes were a notable influence on these learning gains.</p> <p>This research has pedagogical implications for the EFL listening classroom. The findings highlight the mutually reinforcing influences of textbook design and teacher beliefs on how listening is taught. These influences, in turn, shape how learners perceive the process of developing their L2 listening skills. With respect to vocabulary and listening, the findings also suggest that even where the lexical demands of listening appear to be well within the vocabulary level of the learners, there is considerable potential for vocabulary learning from listening classes. Teachers and learners alike are likely to benefit from systematically building on this potential. Future research could further investigate L2 learners’ behaviors and perceptions in the listening class, and examine their vocabulary knowledge in the spoken form.</p>

Teacher Round Table

Study and Scrutiny has focused on the publication of critical and empirical studies surrounding the scholarship and critical merits of Young Adult literature. Because other journals provide a space for pedagogical practices concerning YA, the editors have intentionally shied away from explaining to teachers how to teach a particular title in a particular way. Still, the intention of the journal has been, in part, to support the learning of secondary students as readers and the classroom practices of their teachers. This section hopes to serve as a space to open the conversation surrounding YA literature, its critical merits, and ways that the research might serve teachers as they make curriculum choices about both texts and strategies. The idea is to bring teachers, as intellectuals, into conversation surrounding the scholarship of a featured study. For this issue, four Oklahoma teachers from four different school districts focus on Arianna Banack’s article “Connecting and Critiquing the Canon: Pairing Pride and Pride and Prejudice.”

Survey on Student-Centered Learning Assessment and Feedback Practices - Research Brief

The challenge of assessing student progress and using information gained through assessment to improve teaching and learning is formidable. It can be argued that in student-centered learning (SCL) environments that challenge is even greater than in traditional frontal instruction classrooms. To better understand the assessment and feedback-giving practices of teachers in SCL classrooms, we invited teachers from across the United States to share with us their classroom practices relating to assessment and feedback-giving, the types of feedback they give to students, and their beliefs about the benefits and costs associated with feedback-giving. The goal of this report is to share back our preliminary findings with the participating teachers.

Achieving Praxis for TESOL Educators

Shifting educational landscapes have revealed a need for structured critical reflection. While research on culturally responsive teaching practices and critical reflection prompts exist, there is little in the way of short, synthesized resources for busy educators who desire to change systems of inequity. The authors of this chapter have developed the TESOL educator reflective self-checklist (TERS) for on ground and online educators that utilizes recent research on motivation to activate critical reflection and further culturally sustaining classroom practices. This chapter expands on the evidence and development of this reflective checklist, implementation of the checklist, and provides vignettes of the checklist in use.

TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS AND PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF VARIABILITY FROM THEIR INTERPRETATION OF HISTOGRAMS: THE CASE OF VENEZUELAN IN-SERVICE SECONDARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS

Many studies have reported on the influence of teachers’ conceptions of variability on different aspects of their professional knowledge for teaching statistics and their classroom practices. However, research on these kind of conceptions is still scarce, particularly in Latin American countries like Venezuela. In an effort to help fill this gap, a qualitative study was conducted that aimed to characterize the different ways in which Venezuelan in-service secondary school mathematics teachers conceptualize variability. For that purpose, a survey instrument was developed and administered to 27 teachers working at the metropolitan area of Caracas. This paper focuses on the participants’ answers to two items in which interpretation of histograms was necessary. It was found that about a third of the participants exhibited a sophisticated recognition of variability (e.g., gave answers connecting both middles and extremes), whereas about half of them exhibited misconceptions of variability, such as acknowledging variability from the viewpoint of idiosyncratic ideas, or the degree of symmetry (or lack thereof) of a histogram. Moreover, it was also found that about two-thirds of the participants were unable to correctly match real-life contexts to their corresponding histograms, while about two-fifths were unable to correctly determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of descriptions of the variability in a histogram. The author discusses possible reasons for the obtained results, in order to identify relevant implictions for teacher education in the area of statistics. Abstract: Spanish Diversos estudios han reportado que las concepciones de los docentes sobre variabilidad influencian tanto su conocimiento profesional para la enseñanza de la estadística, como sus prácticas en el aula. Sin embargo, investigaciones sobre este tipo de concepciones son aún escasas, particularmente en países latinoamericanos como Venezuela. Intentando satisfacer esta necesidad, se condujo un estudio cualitativo para identificar y caracterizar las diferentes maneras en que maestros venezolanos de matemáticas a nivel de secundaria conceptualizan la variabilidad. Con tal propósito, un cuestionario fue desarrollado y administrado a 27 docentes en el área metropolitana de Caracas. Este artículo se centra en las respuestas dadas por los participantes a dos ítems del cuestionario, en los que era necesaria la interpretación de histogramas. Se descubrió que aproximadamente un quinto de los participantes demostró un reconocimiento sofisticado de la variabilidad (e.g., considerar simultáneamente valores centrales y extremos de un histograma), mientras que alreadedor de la mitad exhibió concepciones erróneas, tales como el reconocimiento de la variabilidad a partir de ideas idiosincrásicas, o del grado de simetría de un histograma. Además, unos cuatro quintos de los participantes fueron incapaces de establecer una correspondencia entre contextos de la vida real y sus respectivos histogramas, mientras que unos dos quintos fueron incapaces de determinar si descripciones de la variabilidad en un histograma eran o no correctas. El autor discute las posibles razones de los resultados obtenidos, con el fin de identificar implicaciones relevantes para la formación docente en el área de la estadística.

educational role in COVID-19 terms of ethnodesign graphic function in higher education practical activities

The research aims to establish the effectiveness and assessment of the educational role of graphic function of ethnodesign, as well as to determine the feasibility of using didactics outside the classroom practices in art education in the terms of COVID-19. The methodology of study is based on a qualitative approach designed to analyze the results of the research experiment, which provides for comprehensiveness in the study. The method of experiment in work is basic, also applied methods of interviewing and observation. The hypothesis is that in the development of art specialties curricula should be used extracurricular practical classes, where educational components of the graphic function of ethnodesign, as they form creative and educated professionals, actualize educational aspects. The result of the research is the establishment of positive assessment by the participants of educational process of using the graphic function of ethnodesign for educational purposes during practical extracurricular classes since this methodology contributes to the development of creativity and has significant innovative potential in revealing the creative abilities of art students, where students actively influence educational process together. The perspective in the research work is the further implementation of educational and training projects dedicated to the methods of teaching design courses.

A Showcase Study on ELF-oriented Classroom Practices in a General English Course

The lingua franca status of English in transcultural settings questions the orthodox pedagogical principles and mainstream approaches of English language teaching. To mirror the relationship between English as a subject matter and English as a globalised sociolinguistic phenomenon, some scholars call for revisiting the conventional approaches of pedagogy. Still, the response to the call for a transition from the monocentric methods of English language teaching is slow. Teachers have multiple concerns about how to incorporate a global dimension into a general English language course for undergraduates. The present study aims to address this gap by offering a practical example of how to address English as a lingua franca phenomenon in a general English language course. The study showcases classroom practices for raising awareness of today’s complexity of English use as a worldwide lingua franca. Ten Saudi undergraduates at a Saudi university participated in the study. The study shares the participants’ critical reflections on what they have learned from the course. Analysis of the participants’ reflections reveal that approaches based on complexity theory increased their familiarity with English linguistic diversities, developed their transcultural awareness and improved their ability to cope with English functional and contextual diversities. It is hoped that this showcase study can provide some guidance for the further implementation of a global dimension in other contexts.

The Impact of Learning by Doing Application to Enhance Students Inquiry in The Classroom

Background: Learning by doing, also known as experiential learning, is a method when the learners actively participate in the learning process. The role of the teacher is to guide and facilitate the learners by providing a variety of activities and teaching materials that enhance inquiry in the classroom.Research purposes: The purpose of this study was aimed to investigate the impact of learning by doing applications to enhance students‟ inquiry in the classroom.Research methods: The present study involved forty-six (46) teachers across disciplines. Literature review, teachers‟ questionnaires, and open-ended questions through interviews were used for this study.Research results: The finding showed that most of the respondents understood and agreed about the impact of learning by doing application in the classroom and have been applied the method in their teaching and learning process. Some strategies, strengths, and possible challenges were shared during the interview. Hence, the result emphasized that the method enhances active participation that promotes inquiry.Conclusion: Most of teachers are familiar and consistently implement the learning by doing strategies to extend inquiry in the classroom. Some of the learning by doing strategies were shared during the interview. Most of the teachers have occupied with professional development workshops to increase their understanding on how to implement learning by doing that enhance inquiry in the classroom practices. Accordingly, over 90% of teachers agreed on the importance of application learning by doing in the classroom practices. Regarding some feedback, more than half of teachers agreed that learning resources and environment are helpful in the application of learning by doing. Moreover, learning by doing also enhanced inquiry and promote student voice and choice. Despite all the strengths have mentioned above, some challenges also were shared. For example limited resources, time and cost consume and different teachers' abilities in applying learning by doing in the classroom