Speaking Anxiety of Students Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language: Instructors’ Experiences

The purpose of present research is to examine the speaking anxiety observed by the instructors in their students in teaching Turkish as a foreign language settings. For this aim, phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The participants of the research are the instructors working in the Turkish teaching centers of various state universities who were reached through the snowball sampling technique. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data from these tutorials. To analyze the data a content analysis technique with MAXQDA 2020 program was utilized. Instructors of Turkish as a foreign language stated that material and instructor proficiency are the most common factors in foreign language teaching, while motivation, attitude and anxiety are the most common internal factors. According to the results of the study, speaking is the language skill most affected by anxiety. It was concluded that the most common causes of speaking anxiety experienced by the students were the fear of being ridiculed, the thought of failure, and the lack of personal development. Instructors think that speaking anxiety occurs mostly with a shy attitude while speaking. In addition, the instructors stated that they took various measures to solve this situation in their students who they thought had speaking anxiety. These are mostly creating a flexible and relaxing learning environment, applying interesting activities, and allocating special time for the student.

Understanding Austria from Afar: Treating Regional Variation in the Virtu-al German as a Foreign Language Classroom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced nearly every aspect of the academic world, and study abroad is no exception. Particularly in the foreign language learning sector, the unprecedented switch from in-class lectures to distance learning brought with it many challenges. Not only were language instructors tasked with creating an interactive language learning atmosphere from afar but continuing to spark student motivation while catering to a broad range of learning goals constituted a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. The following case study therefore seeks to provide an easily adaptable and interactive task-based activity for the German as a foreign language classroom that should support learners in gaining a deeper understanding of the social dimensions and usages of Austrian regional varieties. Furthermore, the activity is designed so as to be applicable in both an online as well as face-to-face classroom and accommodate foreign language instructors with less experience in digital course delivery and/or minimal access to learning management systems. Abstract in German Die COVID-19 Pandemie hat nahezu jeden Aspekt der akademischen Welt beeinflusst, und Study Abroad ist keine Ausnahme. Gerade im Bereich des Fremdsprachenerwerbs hat die beispiellose Umstellung von Präsenzunterricht auf Fernlehre viele Herausforderungen mit sich gebracht. Nicht nur wurden Fremdsprachenlehrer:innen mit der Aufgabe konfrontiert, eine interaktive Sprachlernatmosphäre aus der Ferne zu schaffen, sondern auch die Motivation der Schüler:innen trotz der Situation zu wecken, aufrechtzuerhalten und gleichzeitig ein breites Spektrum an Lernzielen zu berücksichtigen. Dies hat eine scheinbar unüberwindbare Hürde dargestellt. In der folgenden Fallstudie handelt es sich daher um die Bereitstellung einer leicht adaptierbaren und interaktiven task-based Aktivität für den Deutsch als Fremdsprachenunterricht, die Lernende dabei unterstützen soll, ein tieferes Verständnis der sozialen Dimensionen und Verwendungen österreichischer Regionalvarietäten zu erlangen. Darüber hinaus ist die Aktivität so konzipiert, dass sie sowohl im Online- wie auch im Präsenzunterricht Einsatz finden und von Fremd-sprachenlehrer:innen mit wenig(er) Erfahrung in der digitalen Abhaltung von Lehrveranstaltungen und/oder minimalem Zugang zu Lernmanagement-systemen umgesetzt werden kann.

Distanced Language Education during the Pandemic from the Perspectives of Foreign Language Instructors

This study aims to examine the opinions of foreign language instructors who teach at preparatory classes through distance education during the pandemic. Based on this objective, five instructors working at a School of Foreign Languages at a state university in Turkey were interviewed and their opinions regarding the positive and negative aspects of distance language teaching were revealed. Moreover, the problems they faced, materials they used, and their willingness to teach through distance education after the pandemic were questioned. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The interviews were decoded and themes were determined. The themes and codes were organized and interpreted using the ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis programme. The findings revealed four main categories: learning, student, teaching, and assessment and evaluation. Giving education without time and space restrictions, encouraging individual learning, fostering digital learning, and being economical were some of the positive aspects. As for negative aspects, it could be stressed that the instructors were not able to interact with the students adequately and, particularly, they were unable to teach and support the students’ speaking and writing skills at the desired level. From the findings, the use of distance education partially after the pandemic can be suggested as it offers various advantages of time, place, and economy to learners and teachers in education.

Exploring Engagement in Online Videos for Language Learning through YouTube’s Learning Analytics

Until a few years ago, video analytics were not accessible to learning stakeholders, mainly because online video platforms did not share the users’ interactions on the system with stakeholders. However, this scenario has changed, and currently YouTube, the world’s largest media sharing site, offers these data. YouTube is also the main tool for transmitting audio-visual content in Language MOOCs (massive open online courses), and its video engagement data can be monitored through the YouTube Studio channel, which provides free and open access to video analytics. In this paper we present our research based on the analysis of viewers’ engagement with 35 videos of the Language MOOC entitled Alemán para hispanohablantes: basic principles (German for Spanish-speakers). The data provided by the YouTube Studio Learning Analytics platform has enabled new insights related to participants’ watching of these videos in Language MOOCs (LMOOCs). The results of our study provide pedagogical implications for Foreign Language instructors concerning the use of videos in language learning.

TEN IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF A 21ST CENTURY FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING APPROACH

<p>Foreign language instructors want and need to keep up with the rapid changes in the field of foreign language teaching and learning, but sometimes have a hard time identifying which areas they should focus on (and within each area, what to do) to make their instruction in line with 21st century approaches. The present article describes 10 areas instructors should examine and reflect on (technology, culture, collaboration, interaction with native speakers, communication and grammar, materials, skills, content, motivation, and professional development) to assure they are using innovative techniques that reflect modern philosophies in the field of foreign and second language teaching. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0761/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Development of the National Security Masters’ communicative language ability

Knowledge of the English language is very important not only for civil but also for the military personnel because there are a lot of changes in defense relations all over the world and English is the operational language. So, we should focus on high quality training of specialists who are able to work not only under standard conditions, but also to solve professional problems. According to the Ukrainian current legislation, one of the professional competences of border guards is to speak in English while accomplishing duties on the state border. So there is a necessity to analyze methods and ways of organizing the educational process of this category. The article reflects the key issues connected with the educational program of border guards; investigates integral, general and professional competencies and program learning outcomes. The main attention is paid to peculiarities of English for Specific Purposes and its aim to form foreign professional communicative competence according to the NATO Standards at the 2nd level. The hypothesis of our article is that the development of the national security masters’ communicative language ability depends on use of up to day learning methods at the English language lessons. The discipline ESP for border guards training includes such themes: “Conceptual bases of politics and public administration in the sphere of national security and defense of Ukraine”, “Border security of Ukraine”, “Border Security of the USA and EU country-members” and “Conceptual bases of politics and public administration in the sphere of national security and defense of the USA and EU country-members”. The organization of the lesson “Land navigation: map reading” has been discussed and its five-stage plan (introduction, input, practice, production, and conclusion) has been investigated. The information obtained from this paper could be of interest for English for Specific Purposes teaching material developers and foreign language instructors.

French-English Cognates in the Jordanian Foreign Language Learning Classroom: Friends or Foes?

The aim of the present study is two-fold in essence. First, it aims at finding out the extent to which cognates&rsquo; recognition aids Jordanian French-English bilinguals to translate from English into French. Second, it seeks to determine if such recognition can be a good strategy in learning foreign languages. Accordingly, a Translation Elicitation Task containing cognates and false cognates was devised and given to a sample of 31 students majoring in French at both the B.A and M.A levels at the University of Jordan. Findings of the study showed that most students did benefit from their English language background, and thus cognates facilitated their comprehension of French. However, some students participating in the translation test were not mindful of the lexical differences between English and French, thus producing an incorrect interpretation of the text. The study ends with a recommendation for foreign language instructors to teach cognate recognition strategies explicitly.

Challenges Faced by Female Students with Visual Impairments in Learning English as a Foreign Language: A Narrative Inquiry Study

The English language is an international language used to enhance communication in all parts of the world. Countries that do not use English as their first language experience challenges while on international forums as their ability to communicate is curtailed. Females, especially those with visual impairment problems, are mostly affected. This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced by visually impaired female students when studying English at Taif University. The study adopted a narrative inquiry approach. The researcher randomly selected the study participants from visually impaired female students who had an average understanding of English. Data were collected by administering structured interviews. Online questionnaires were used to collect data from foreign language instructors. The study finding indicated that learners found learning English easy, though faced with challenges in the classroom, curriculum design that is not wholly inclusive of the visually impaired, and lack of learning materials such as PDFs, audios, and visuals. Simultaneously, foreign language instructors had not attended any course to teach English to the visually impaired. Based on the study findings, teachers and students required training to understand and handle the VI (visually impaired) students with more attention since there is no direct provision in the department.

The Development of the Linguistic Persona in the Context of Professionally Oriented University-Level Foreign Language Education

The article discusses a number of issues related to developing the linguistic persona and intercultural competency and focuses on educational ideas, strategies, technologies, and practices that embody intercultural approaches to foreign language education. To ensure the high quality of foreign language education, our priorities must include the development of competences in the area of professional communication in foreign languages. In that regard, the article identifies pedagogical conditions conducive to fostering the socio-cultural competence and the successful development of the learner’s linguistic persona. The authors present mechanisms of implementing the said pedagogical conditions in the following areas: a) developing communication skills and competencies of foreign language instructors; b) modeling situations with communication barriers in diverse ethnocultural environments; c) acquiring and selecting ethnocultural information; d) integrating in-class and out-of-class activities in a foreign language; and e) establishing a good rapport between an instructor and her students. The authors go on to describe the methodological basis for designing the content of foreign language programs, identify optimal approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, and reflect on the context of the intercultural paradigm in university-level foreign language education.