Language teachers’ accounts of challenges in two European settings of integration training

This study investigates the work of second language teachers in two institutional settings responsible for integration training. By exploring teachers’ accounts in Finland and Germany, we seek to deepen the understanding of the daily practice of second language education. Bridging conceptual and practical approaches, the aim is to contribute to the current discourse on the development of adult second language education in Europe. A phenomenographic analysis of semi-structured interviews reveals challenges that influence instruction from inside and outside institutional practice. Accounts in the Finnish setting depict issues in how language education, teachers’ work, and adult education are perceived. Administration and language teachers disagree on what needs to be improved in a changing societal environment. Professional pride and appreciation are strongly demanded in a profession that is still being established, and challenges specific to adult education translate into priorities in delivering instruction. In the German setting, expressions culminate in prerequisites, and challenges lie in the way external factors influence course design and instruction. They also touch upon learning: methods, materials, and abilities. Feelings of inadequacy describe teachers’ psychological working environment. A comparison concludes a need to defend contact teaching in Finland and to improve tracking of slower learners’ progress in Germany.

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.

Grade 3 ESL teachers’ (mis)conceptions about vocabulary acquisition, learning and instruction: A case study

development-related (mis)conceptions of ten purposively selected Grade 3 English Second Language teachers in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, with a view to indexing their vocabulary pedagogical practices. The efficacy of teacher cognition on teaching practices is the theory upon which the present study, which considers vocabulary development as a proxy for literacy attainment, is based. The theory is buttressed by literature on the research-based best practices in literature development against which teachers’ conceptionsare measured. Semi-structured teacher interview findings showed that vocabulary instruction proceeded largely on the basis of intuitive pedagogical decisions which evince dissonance with researchbased best practices. There was a manifest disregard for both incidental andcontextualised vocabulary development, and an apparent underestimation of learners’ potential for independent vocabulary acquisition. Professed instructional strategies only drew learners’ attention to the orthographic and phonological forms of the words at the expense of other crucial dimensions of word knowledge. The paper recommends a consideration of teachers’ vocabulary development-related perceptions as a point of departure for teacher education and teacher professional development, among others.

L’accompagnement selon une démarche réflexive sur-dans-pour la pratique tel que vécu par trois types d’acteurs

Collective accompaniment, as per the reflexivity approach on-in-for practice, requires the adoption of different postures, whether one is placed in the role of the accompanying or accompanied person. This article presents the lived experiences of an accompaniment process fostering research and training within an individual and collective reflexivity approach. Three types of actors are interrelated: an accompanying research director, an accompanied and accompanying doctoral candidate, and accompanied and accompanying English as a second language teachers. Advocating for an action-research approach using the first-person point of view (“I”), each actor was invited to reflect on their practice from an on-in-for perspective. The discussion presents three dimensions: the role of ethical rules, the art of questioning, and the interdependence between involved actors.

“This is Not My World”. Essential Support Strategies for Newly Arrived Adult Immigrants Learning Swedish

Summary In Sweden, the state-sponsored language education, Swedish for immigrants (Sfi), provides language and cultural knowledge for the integration of newly arrived adult migrants in Swedish society. Sfi’s educational quality has sustained severe criticism. Through qualitative investigation of Sfi teacher work, this study aims to find out what pedagogical priorities guide the teachers’ classroom practices with linguistically and culturally diverse students. Furthermore, it aims to compare the contributions to Sfi learning environments of ethnically diverse teachers whose language experiences are different. Research into second language acquisition and native and non-native second language teachers contextualize the research aims. Bakhtin’s (1986) conception of human understanding as the meeting of two consciousnesses and García’s ideas about translanguaging in language education for adult migrants provide theoretical perspectives. Classroom observation alongside teacher focus groups generated data. Content analysis condensed the data into five essential support strategies that foreground students’ existential needs, their home languages as a learning resource, integration, learning challenge and instructional partnership between ethnically diverse teachers. Findings do not support the view that non-native language teachers are better equipped to teach second language students than their native counterparts but illuminate the unequivocal advantage of harnessing the pedagogical strengths of both teacher groups cooperatively.

What do Malaysian ESL Teachers Think About Flipped Classroom?

Student-centred teaching and learning methods are favoured for promoting active and collaborative learning. In the flipped classroom approach, student-centred teaching and learning are the focus in the learning process. The approach has been gaining attention from educators at all levels worldwide. The present study was aimed at exploring Malaysian primary ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of flipped classroom. The study used the mixed method design, a Likert-scale questionnaire and an open-ended question. This research employed a whole population sample, which consisted of primary ESL teachers in a rural area in Malaysia. The findings showed that the teachers have positive perceptions of the flipped classroom approach as well as some concerns regarding its implementation, such as the availability of ICT (information and communications technology) gadgets and Internet connection in rural areas. Teachers’ perceptions of flipped classrooms can be used to make suggestions or give ideas to the authorities for improving the infrastructure in rural areas to help teachers and students. It is recommended that future studies be carried out with a larger and more diverse population to gather a more detailed picture of Malaysian teachers’ perceptions of the flipped classroom approach.

African Immigrant Teachers Teaching Young EFL Learners: A Racial Discrimination Study

Teaching English language to young learners in an English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language context could be challenging especially for African immigrants, as they face varying arrays of challenges ranging from low wages, staff abuse, and other racial discriminations. A lot has been written about racially related issues in our school system yet there are limited works of literature that focus on the challenges of African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers with regards to racial discrimination. To investigate this, a mixed-method research design was used to elicit information from 68 African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers, teaching young English as a Foreign Language learners in 3 countries. The participants were purposively chosen after obtaining written and oral consent from them. A structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview questions were instruments for data collection. Reliability and validity checks were carried out before administering the questionnaire. After analysis, a notable finding was that African immigrant teachers felt unaccepted by the host communities and this made it difficult for the English as a Second Language learners to listen to classroom instructions given by these immigrant teachers. Again, the parents of these learners find it difficult to accept African immigrant teachers teaching their children as they deemed them incompetent to teach them. Other findings of the study were vital in making pedagogical conclusions on racial discrimination issues encountered by African immigrant English as a Second Language teachers. The ways forward for an all-inclusive educational system devoid of ethnic, religious, sexuality and racial issues were suggested.