Fostering EFL/ESL Students' State Motivation: The Role of Teacher-Student Rapport

It is maintained that one of the significant determining issues of success is motivation, and enhancing EFL/ESL students' motivation is dominant in cultivating their learning in the classroom. Moreover, teachers are reflected as the most noteworthy figure of any scholastic organization and the positive rapport between students and teachers is significant for learners' state motivation. In line with the investigations of teacher-student rapport, principles from positive psychology (PP), and motivational theories such as self-determination and rhetorical/relational goal theory, the present theoretical review seeks this type of relationship and its effects on learners' motivation. Student-teacher rapport results in progressive practices for learners, as well as superior classroom involvement, and motivation. Subsequently, the helpfulness of findings for teachers, learners, materials developers, and teacher trainers are conferred.

Incorporating Cultural Exposure into Teaching Practices: Native Speaker Teacher vs Indonesian EFL Teacher

As English language teacher, both Native English Speaker Teacher (NEST) and Indonesian EFL Teacher own professional competence as well their perception, assumption, beliefs and values that are shaped by their social and cultural interaction. They bring with them their personal and professional attributes into the classroom. As language and cultural aspects are interrelated, particularly since English is now a lingua franca, thus exploring how the different professional and personal background of English language teachers relates to their teaching becomes essential. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers’ cultural exposure of the target language is incorporated and affects their teaching. This study is qualitative in nature, aiming to describe how the cultural exposures of three different types of teachers are reflected in their teaching practices. Data collection is done through semi-structured interview, class observation and document analysis. The finding shows that teacher’s cultural exposure affects their teaching philosophy and attitude considerably large, particularly in their perspective towards student-teacher rapport. The incorporation of the cultural exposure is done through content of teaching materials and instruction in the classroom. The three types of teacher demonstrate a similar approach and methods when teaching the language, despite the differences in their cultural exposure of the target language.

Making Connections: Student-Teacher Rapport in Higher Education Classrooms

Educational research asserts the importance of establishing rapport between teachers and their students for the sake of fostering a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. Especially given the disparities in outcomes of university students, it is imperative for educators and policy makers to look at teaching practices in the college classroom as well as policies relevant to teaching and learning in university contexts. This paper reports on an ethnographic study of a college-level academic writing class, centering on how its writing teacher seeks to establish rapport and facilitate understanding with first- and second-year undergraduate students. The findings presented in this paper highlight examples practitioners can examine to validate student knowledge and participation as well as mitigate the effects of differences in identity between teacher and student. This paper closes by inviting discussion and reflection of college-level teachers' practices in the classroom and whether they elicit engagement from students.

Empowering students to take ownership of their learning: Lessons from one piano teacher’s experiences with transformative pedagogy

As the number of adults seeking to learn the piano increases, so too does the need for piano teachers to understand how to better facilitate their learning. Self-direction is an oft-cited requirement of adult learning, but one that is often absent from piano studios. This practitioner-based research investigates the role of the teacher in fostering and supporting self-direction, empowering adult piano students to take ownership of their learning. It offers pedagogical insights into the author’s experiences within her own piano studio and details the practical application of theories and strategies offered within the fields of piano pedagogy and adult learning. This study finds that fostering self-direction is more complex than offering the balance between guidance and freedom that some experts suggest. It also requires strong student–teacher rapport, supporting and building students’ self-efficacy and being willing to set aside expectations. This was made possible by implementing transformative pedagogical strategies, such as effective questioning, collaborative discussions and adapting the structure of lessons. While the author’s journey is uniquely her own, the approaches used to engage adult students with their learning, and the use of reflective practice as professional development, may be of interest to other studio instrumental teachers.

EFL Learners and Their Success in Learning English in the Thai Context

The main aim of the study is to explore 15 high achieving English language learners’ accounts of their undertakings in learning English in a Thai upper secondary school. The researcher adopts the view of social learning, particularly in reaching better understandings of the learners’ experiences in learning English. As there exists a tendency to gauge learners’ success in English based on examinations, this study asserts that language learning involves more than a cognitive process, thus values the social aspects of experiential English learning. The focus lies on investigating the perceptions of these high achieving English language learners of their success in learning English as well as the influences contributing to it. Two methods are used to collect data: focus groups and interviews. The findings indicate the participants’ perceptions of their own success in learning English in three main aspects: English language ability, examination performance and skills in teaching others. In particular, the ability to speak English fluently and correctly appears to be of utmost importance for a successful English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner. It is also found that most learners identify their own performance in class, the teacher, including teacher rapport, and school culture as contributing to their English learning achievement. In focusing on the learners’ perceptions and their actual experiences, insights into how the learners actually undergo the learning opportunities provided by the education system can be obtained. To understand the extent to which innovations in English language teaching and learning have been successful, the everyday realities of the language classroom and school have to be accentuated.

Driving Transformative Learning within Australian Indigenous Studies

Australian undergraduate programmes implementing Indigenous studies courses suggest transformative educational outcomes for students; however, the mechanism behind this is largely unknown. To begin to address this, we obtained baseline data upon entry to tertiary education (Time 1) and follow-up data upon completion of an Indigenous studies health unit (Time 2) on student learning approaches, student-teacher rapport, classroom community, critical reflection (CR) and transformative experiences within the unit. Three-hundred-thirty-six health science first-year students (273 females, 63 males) completed anonymous in-class paper questionnaires at both time points. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that (a) CR was the strongest predictor of transformative learning experiences, (b) the relationship between deep learning approach upon entry to tertiary education and transformative learning experiences was mediated by CR and (c) rapport and classroom community accounted for significant variance in CR. These results suggest that students benefit from tutors’ ability to develop rapport and classroom community, leading to greater capacity for student CR. This in turn promotes transformative learning possibilities within the Indigenous studies learning environment. These findings provide a further rationale for institutions to embed Indigenous knowledge into courses and highlight the importance of evaluating their effect and quality.

Using Student Feedback to Help Improve Teaching in the College Classroom

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new” (). This quote by Albert Einstein expresses the importance of continually evolving the college classroom. There are a wide range of attitudes toward student evaluations of teaching or SETs, from complete rejection to acceptance and use. SETs results are widely used not only for administrative decision-making, but also for improving learning and building student-teacher rapport. For this reason, it is important to investigate faculty motives and reasoning for using or not using SETs. There is also a need for more information about which aspects of the SETs process faculty members view as useful and which parts are viewed negatively. More information about faculty perceptions of certain aspects could warrant important modifications to the SET process. The purpose of this chapter is to gain insight into how faculty view SETs and how they utilize the feedback received from them. The authors also hope to highlight the importance of engaging students in curriculum development to improve teaching effectiveness.

BUILDING RAPPORT WITH YOUNG EFL LEARNERS AND ITS IMPACT ON THEIR ACHIEVEMENT IN AN EFL LEARNING CONTEXT

This paper aims to stress the importance of building rapport with young EFL (English as a foreign language) learners and to investigate the connection between student-teacher rapport and students’ achievement in an EFL classroom. It also treats some methods and approaches that should be used when teaching young language learners with respect to their needs and characteristics. In addition, this paper describes the importance of motivation for language acquisition and explores some motivational strategies for young language learners. The paper also aims at inspiring EFL teachers to focus on dimensions of language teaching which are associated with pedagogical aspects of teaching and are focused on creating positive student-teacher relations. The positive classroom atmosphere in which students feel safe and comfortable is considered essential for their success in language learning.

Assessing Effective Teaching of Psychology: A Meta-Analytic Integration of Learning Outcomes

Teaching researchers can assess learning outcome effectiveness as a function of students' graded performance or changes in knowledge, skills and behaviors, or attitudes. We meta-analyzed 197 studies to determine the effectiveness of teaching activities in Teaching of Psychology (ToP) both overall and also as a function of type of learning outcome assessment. We found that, on average, studies evidenced a medium effect size across types of learning outcomes. Given the effectiveness of ToP teaching activities, researchers should address the (a) potential confounding role of teacher rapport, immediacy, and alliance in evaluating teaching effectiveness; (b) ethics of teaching activity development; and (c) appropriateness of using course grades to assess teaching activity effectiveness.