Bilingual or “Bye-Lingual”? An Analysis and Discussion of Bilingual Education Mode in China and the US

This article compares bilingual education mode in two countries: China and the US. For China, the bilingual education been analysed includes mandarin and ethnic minority languages, Chinese and English. Extant research on bilingual education tends to focus on one country whilst there is a paucity of papers comparing various kinds of bilingual education. In this paper, by using the systematic review method, the differences and similarities of bilingual education mode in these two countries are been discussed and the tensions, as well as opportunities of bilingual education behind these two countries is explored. This paper ends a call for non-English native speaking EFL/ESL teachers to see their first language as an asset for developing bilingual education worldwide.

A Case Study on the Sri Lankan English Language Learner in the field of Creative Arts

This article reports the findings of a study that investigated the attitudes of creative arts undergraduates and the attitudes and perception of English as a second language (ESL) teachers from different faculties in three Sri Lankan universities about the motivation and proficiency of their students. Employing a qualitative approach in which a 20-item 6- point Likert scale questionnaire and eight (8) item online questionnaire served as the instuments respectively for randomly selected 25 students and the 10 ESL teachers. The results of the study revealed that the undergraduates were aware of the role played by the English language in terms of the potential utility,importance of learning and the potential impact on their future employment.According to the data analysis,the undergraduates in the faculties of medicine and science are motivated than their counterparts in the faculty of creative arts.Differenciations were observerd in terms of independent thinking, enthusiasm for classroom tasks and critical thinking between the same.

Analyse and challenges of teaching writing among the English teachers

Teaching is a one of the productive skills in the English language writing, involves developing students' linguistic competence, which many ESL teachers find difficulties. The study's main goal is to examine the challenges faced by ESL teachers in teaching writing skills to students in university classrooms. This study aims to identify problems faced by teachers of Arts faculty in the Universities level. The researcher used questionnaires to survey teachers' concerns about teaching writing skills. The researcher used a descriptive method to report the problems encountered by the sampled teachers in teaching writing skills. The survey had 12 questions. This study's findings not only revealed the problematic factors but also suggested some practical solutions. This study's findings and recommendations may help teachers reflect on their teaching practices and assist authorities in supporting teachers' efforts to improve student writing skills.

Malaysian ESL Teachers’ Practice of Written Feedback on Students’ Writing

Feedback to students’ writing plays an important role as a scaffolding technique to help the students to improve their writing skills. With the introduction of school-based assessment and the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) into the new Standards-based English Language Curriculum (SBELC), teachers are expected to adapt the process writing approach in their classroom, where feedback is at the core of the process writing approach. This present study aims to explore Malaysian ESL teachers’ practice of written feedback in their writing classrooms. Two sample essays were used in this study. The sample essays were written by a Form Three student of a secondary school in Kuantan, Pahang, and a Form Five student from a secondary school in Manjung, Perak.The sample essays were sent to all secondary schools in Pahang, and teachers who teach the English Language at the schools were asked to mark the essay as how they would normally mark their students’ essays. The participants of this study were selected using purposive sampling. A total of 89 student sample essays with the teachers’ marking were returned, and the teachers’ feedback were analysed. This study found that most of the participants mark their students’ essays comprehensively and implicitly. However, some of the respondents did not give any feedback at all, and even if they did, the feedback would be retracted from the marking rubric. It has also been found that the respondents of this present study did not utilise comments on goals to work towards or specific activities for improvement. This paper further discusses the findings in view of the assessment of learning (AfL) and gives recommendations for future practice.

Challenges of Implementing Technology in ESL Writing Classrooms: A Case Study

The present study aimed to investigate the challenges and barriers encountered by ESL teachers when they implement technological tools in writing classroom. It also explored teachers’ perceptions towards integrating technology in writing classroom. The study involved observing a number of writing classes from different levels at an English Language Institute at a southwestern university in the United States. Next, an interview was conducted with one of the observed teachers to enquire about implementing technology in the classroom and reasons behind possible challenges. The study revealed some challenges that hindered or prevented teachers from applying technology in writing classroom. Such challenges were technical problems, students’ attitudes towards using technology, lack of time, lack of computers and other devices, and lack of technical support. Moreover, the study showed that teachers had positive perceptions toward using technology to facilitate teaching process. Pedagogical implications and solutions to overcome technical issues are provided for ESL/EFL writing teachers and policy makers.

Teacher Electronic Written Corrective Feedback, Trends and Future Directions

The past two decades witnessed increased attention in the role of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) in improving the English as a second language(ESL) students’ written linguistic accuracy. Several methods were suggested, including the use of the electronic means of providing corrective feedback. The electronic methods proved to be effective despite the limited numbers and contexts. However, the extent of these studies is still unknown. Furthermore, no comprehensive review of the studies had been conducted to date. This systematic literature review will identify and classify the research on providing ESL teachers with Electronic Written Corrective Feedback (EWCF). A survey of several experimental and analytical studies that focused on testing the effect of different methods of EWCF on ESL students was conducted, covering the period between 2006 and 2020. Two major groups of studies emerged from this research, and several gaps were identified. The research concluded with several recommendations regarding the potential tracks for future research on EWCF. The current research will serve as a guideline for ESL writing practitioners and researchers on future teacher corrective feedback in second language writing.

Cognition in Teaching Grammar and Actual Practices of Experienced and Less-Experienced Filipino ESL Teachers

Though studies in the Western and Asian settings have already provided ample evidence in the symbolic relationship between teacher cognition and classroom teaching, such relationship has remained unexplored in the Philippine setting. Hence, this study aims to describe the beliefs in the teaching of English grammar of experienced and less experienced Filipino ESL teachers in a senior high school. It also compared their beliefs and actual classroom teaching to establish if there is match between what they think and practice. Reasons for divergence from their beliefs were also explored. Results revealed that teachers’ personal theories become the basis for their personal knowledge, thus have strong influence on their planning, instructional decisions and classroom practices. While both teachers share similarities on their cognition and practice on grammar teaching, minimal differences were documented. Experienced teacher has a greater tendency to translate stated beliefs to actual practice. Contextual factors such as time, curriculum, efforts to improve one’s practice and the learners themselves were the cited reasons for teachers’ divergence.

Reflection of Pre-Service ESL Teachers on Using e-Portfolio in Teacher Education

Since the last decade of previous millennium e-portfolio has become a frequent topic of discussion in teacher education contexts. It is seen as one of the prominent innovations in educational technology that demonstrates teachers’ tangible development of competencies over time. Vast amount of literature is available that document the relative advantages and consequent advocacy for its implementation across disciplines, institutions, and applications. In Malaysia, research on e-portfolio is sparse, and particularly in pre-service teacher education it has never been explored. This article describes the findings of a qualitative study examining fifty-five pre-service ESL teachers’ learning experiences while they created e-portfolios as a part of their course requirement at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Data was collected through structured surveys. Findings indicate that most of the participants perceived the process of reflecting on course objectives contributed to their growth and development. Participants also reported several drawbacks of e-portfolios which are required to consider for its successful implementation in teacher education of Malaysia.

A Comparative Study Between China and Malaysia: Investigating the Influence of First Language (L1) Syntax in Speaking English (L2) among Primary School Students

For Malaysian students, speaking in English is one of the most challenging skills to master, especially if they do not have a strong command of the language. Meanwhile in China, the English language is primarily employed as a means of academic communication and teaching. This paper aims to identify which linguistic items have been transferred positively and negatively from L1 (Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin) in speaking English (L2) among primary school students. A qualitative study among primary school students from China and Malaysia was carried out using purposive sampling. Based on the findings, four types of syntactic errors from the Malaysian students' speech were identified. It was evident that the students had difficulties to speak correctly in terms of sentence structure. The four syntactic errors found are simple past, simple present, verb ‘to be’ and subject-verb-agreement. Meanwhile, it has been found that Chinese students frequently produce linguistic mistakes during their utterances of L2 speech as a result of L1 interference. This research also exposed that the students are still unconsciously relying on their mother tongue to translate their sentence into L2. The study is expected to help ESL teachers to draw the analogies between corresponding L1 and L2 syntax constructions. The findings will contribute and direct the learners’ attention to cross-language syntactic similarities and differences and thus guide them to a deeper understanding of underlying linguistic structure.

Approaches to Pronunciation Instruction in Communicative Language Teaching Classrooms

One of the main factors that affects pronunciation instruction in the classroom is the educators’ teaching approach. Various elements like L1 (first language), cultural backgrounds, et cetera would influence teaching pronunciation, making English teachers deploy different pedagogical approaches for the learning process to occur. This article aims to provide insights into the pedagogical approaches used by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers in their CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) classrooms. It will also explore the influencing variables on these approaches. For this purpose, five English teachers (two EFL and three ESL teachers) provided the needed data through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview for this qualitative study. The results showed that the participants used two teaching approaches for delivering pronunciation lessons, and two types of variables (i.e., student-related and teacher-related variables) influenced their choice of approach in the pronunciation classroom. Although this study does not intend to be generalized, it provides language teachers with a view of pedagogical approaches used by a number of EFL and ESL teachers for teaching pronunciation.