Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Using First Language in English Classrooms: A Case Study of Kurdish Intermediate Teachers

This study aims to shed light on the teachers’ attitudes and insights towards using first language (L1) in intermediate English (L2) classrooms. It looks into the justifications and perceptions that teachers have regarding the use of Kurdish in English classrooms. More specifically, this study tries to find the major challenges that teachers face if the use of Kurdish language is ignored at intermediate schools. The analysis of this paper was based on a case study which was conducted on (10) intermediate English language teachers from (7) public and private schools in Sulaymaniyah. Qualitative methodology was applied by interviewing the participants virtually and asking the same open-ended questions. The results revealed that the majority of the teachers support the bilingual approach and the use of Kurdish language in intermediate English classrooms. Furthermore, the results showed that the teachers, to some extent, support the use of the Kurdish language to serve certain pedagogical functions, such as decreasing classroom anxiety, increasing students’ participation, explaining difficult idiomatic expressions, giving test instructions, and facilitating classroom management. The findings of this study will help the intermediate English language teachers and learners to overcome the challenges they may face and, ultimately, improve the teaching and learning process.

Analysis on the difference of college teachers’ professional pressure and strategies to improve teachers’ mental health under the expectancy theory

BACKGROUND: Professional pressure is one of the most concerned issues in society. Teachers are a group of people with greater professional pressure. The pressure sources include students, schools and society. OBJECTIVE: This exploration aims to explore the professional pressure and mental health of college teachers. METHOD: Based on the expectancy theory, the professional pressure and mental health of different college teachers are investigated. The overall steps are as follows: the determination of topic, questionnaire design, questionnaire distribution and recovery, questionnaire data analysis to obtain results, as well as countermeasure analysis based on the results. RESULTS: The investigation suggests that the sores of college teachers’ work pressure load, family life pressure, interpersonal pressure, physical and mental pressure, leadership and organizational factors pressure, career development pressure, scientific research, and professional title pressure are high. From senior to elementary, the pressure of teachers increases first and then decreases. The professional development pressure of liberal arts teachers is significantly higher than that of science teachers and engineering teachers (P < 0.05). Among science and engineering teachers, the professional development pressure of science teachers is relatively high. Men have better mental health than women (P < 0.05). Unmarried teachers have the best mental health status, followed by married and finally divorced (P < 0.05). The mental health of senior and elementary teachers is significantly better than that of sub-senior teachers and intermediate teachers (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The investigation on professional pressure and mental health of college teachers can contribute to the related problem solving in China, as well as enrich the content of relevant fields in China.

Teacher's Specialized Content Knowledge on the Concept of Square: A Vignette Approach

In learning geometry, the discussion about the definition of quadrilateral is a material that is difficult and not easily taught by the teacher. This study aims to explore the teacher's specialized content knowledge about square. This is a descriptive-qualitative research. The process of selecting subjects begins with searching prospective subject data according to the level of the teacher through a portfolio of 82 teachers in South East of Sulawesi: (33 First Teachers, 33 Young Teachers, and 16 Intermediate Teachers). The research subjects consisted of three teachers, namely: First Teacher, Young Teacher dan Intermediate Teacher with score > 50. Data were taken using vignette. The results show that there is a difference when the teacher is asked to define a square with when given a definition of a square. First Teacher is accurate when given a square definition with the symmetry and diagonal axis attributes; the side attribute is not accurate in giving arguments to the square definition. Young Teacher is inaccurate when given the definition of a square with side and angle attributes; accurate with symmetry and diagonal axis attributes; but it is not accurate when given a square definition. Regarding attributes of side; Intermediate Teacher revealed that the side and angle attributes are inaccurate but accurate with the symmetry and diagonal axis attributes but do not appear / are not used when asked to define a square. Specialized content knowledge First Teacher is better because it has been able to reconstruct concepts from a square, but Young Teacher and Intermediate Teacher are still influenced by concept images and figural concepts.