INVESTIGATING LEARNER AUTONOMY OF EFL AND ESP STUDENTS AT THE TERTIARY LEVEL: CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Learner autonomy is a concept developed to reiterate the need for life-long learning that goes beyond the prescribed curriculum and institutional settings. In addition, learner-centered approach shifts the burden of responsibility from teachers to learners, as learners are now obliged to take charge of their learning. In that respect, students at the tertiary level of education are expected to know how to learn, inclusive of what to learn and where to learn. In other words, they should be trained to organize their own learning, control and monitor their progress, and evaluate the results, whereas the current educational settings should be given the task to contribute to the development of learner autonomy that paves the way for life-long education. The participants in the research are EFL students from the department of English Language and Literature at Faculty of Philosophy, University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, and ESP students from the Academy of Technical and Pre-School Vocational Studies Niš, Department Vranje. A Learner Autonomy Questionnaire developed by Zhang and Li (2004) was administered to measure students’ learner autonomy level. The aim of the paper is not only to outline the significance of taking control of one’s learning, but also to use certain tools in the EFL classroom that contribute to the process of building learner autonomy, as its pedagogical implication, including language learning strategies, project-based tasks, reflective journals, etc.

The Secreted Curriculum and Youth Education to Become the Professionals the World Craves for

Over the decades, the world has had great people—in economics and education but what the world craves for as it grapples with social challenges are people with strong moral character. This article seeks to provoke discussions on the secreted curriculum and its role on youth’s learning of professionalism because much of youth’s professionalism learning comes not from the prescribed curriculum, but the secreted curriculum. The target population was 1246 undergraduate students in universities in Nairobi city County. The Yamane’s sample calculation formula was employed in determining the sample size and the sample was 486. In analyzing the quantitative data, the researcher utilized the SPSS software program version 25. The results revealed that influences of unplanned lessons arising from how we do what we do and say what we say have both negative and positive impact on youth’s acquisition of professional values. The researcher therefore proposes a thorough exploration of the humanistic climate (the secreted curriculum).

High School Teachers’ Perceptions of the Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching (ICLT) Model Applied in Language Classrooms- A Case Study of a Vietnamese High School

This study exemplifies itself as an attempt to bridge theory and practice in developing high school learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) through language teaching. In particular, it aims to introduce the Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching (ICLT) model to teachers through seminars for teaching practice in a high school context. Teachers’ perceptions of the model were investigated via two rounds of interviews and classroom observations. Ten teachers in a high school in the Mekong Delta Region participated in the first stage of seminars and round-one interviews and three continued to proceed to the second phase of lesson planning and teaching practice. Findings from the study revealed a high level of awareness the teachers had regarding the need to integrate cultural aspects and develop students’ ICC. The teachers perceived contextual conditions in their school as favourable for integrating cultural contents in their English lessons. Yet, the urge to abide by the prescribed curriculum and textbooks, and the exam backwash effects appeared to discourage them to confidently adopt a more language-culture balanced approach in teaching. The teachers were also found to wholeheartedly welcome the ICLT model for its values in promoting more weight on cultural aspects and bringing more motivation to learners. The model was perceived as teacher-friendly and highly feasible in their context thanks to its resemblance to the CLT teaching approach that they were familiar with. Heavy workload in lesson preparation, time restriction in the curriculum and teachers’ lack of confidence in their own cultural and intercultural knowledge and skills were found to be key challenges to the teachers’ practice when the ICLT model was applied.

Legacies of the Yale Report of 1828 in Liberal Education

The Yale Report was published in 1828 as a response to the rapid geographic, economic, and educational expansion in early, nineteenth-century America. The Report defined the purpose of collegiate liberal education as one that should ‘lay the foundation of superior education.’ According to the Report, this was to be best achieved by disciplining and grounding the mind on the faculty of psychology. In this process, the Report left both positive and negative legacies which have had long-term impacts on liberal education. The Report defined liberal education as one that provides general basic theories and principles. In addition, by stressing the importance of a ‘thorough education,’ the Report not only laid the basis for general education in later centuries, but also distinguished liberal education from professional, or vocational education, and the role and function of colleges accordingly. Moreover, the Report made a distinction between undergraduate and graduate studies. However, this distinction made it possible for liberal education to be downgraded into basic education for the study of concentrations. Meanwhile, the overemphasis on universal mental faculties which is content-neutral made it possible for non-liberal disciplines to be included within the curriculum of liberal education, which in turn would lower the status of liberal education. In addition, teacher-centered faculty psychology enabled the college as the guardian who took the parental responsibilities to enforce prescribed curriculum on their students. Moreover, faculty psychology also enabled liberal education to accommodate the new entrepreneurial and business demands of a rapidly changing society and thereby opened a way for neo-republicanism to be realized in America at that time. However, ironically, the discipline of the mind which was originally a tool and a skill for liberal education became its purpose since the notion of mental faculties was content-free as well as value-free. As a result, liberal education lacked virtues, values, moral⋅ethical ends, and public good. This undesirable phenomenon would give a grave lesson to the liberal education in current Korea enthralled by the notion of ‘core competencies.’

Pedagogical strategies for Chemical Engineering courses: Skills development through Project-based learning (PBL)

The formal curriculum practices in engineering education have been rethought in order to meet the growing demand for the development of the more traditional skills, as well as newer multidisciplinary skills for the students, making them protagonists in their own development and forging the curriculum through concrete activities (curriculum in action) that go beyond the prescribed curriculum. As a fundamental part of this process, a project was developed by students and professors of the Chemical Engineering course, where the Project-Based Learning methodology was applied. During the traditional curriculum course "Operations and Processes Laboratory", students were able to work with the curriculum in action through four main activities that required the application of technical knowledge linked to communication skills and problem solving, adaptation to reality, proactivity and analytical ability. The development of competences and skills by the students was analyzed based on the reports they presented as a result of their group projects and summarized in a matrix of general engineering competences, based on the Brazilian National Curriculum Guidelines. Through this matrix it was possible to conclude that the students solved the real problem situations using the technical knowledge learned at the University, while taking into account the relevant economic, environmental and social aspects. They defined the theme of their work, goals and the methodology to be developed with complete autonomy. They exercised creativity and used multidisciplinary skills to seek solutions and adapt resources, acquiring equipment and supplies, developing and building adaptively, while utilizing the tools at their disposal. They exercised the analytical capacity to elucidate the results and present improvements and also introduced digital technologies to facilitate communication and other processes.

Timorização da Geografia escolar: tecendo interlocuções sobre currículo, cultura e território

Neste artigo abordamos a relação entre currículo, cultura e território, dentro do contexto da Geografia escolar em Timor-Leste, problematizando a colonialidade presente em diferentes momentos da constituição dessa disciplina. Com base na perspectiva pós-crítica e pós-estruturalista da Teoria do Discurso de Ernesto Laclau, compreendemos que a elaboração e a implementação de um currículo estão carregadas de disputas discursivas entre contextos políticos, concepções institucionais e atores sociais envolvidos nesse processo. Metodologicamente, a partir de um levantamento documental, de interlocuções com profissionais da educação timorense e da análise do Manual do Aluno de Geografia (10º ano de escolaridade), verificamos que esta disciplina, historicamente, esteve voltada para atender à manutenção da colonização portuguesa, da ocupação territorial indonésia, e atualmente, está ligada a uma ótica geográfica estrangeira, por meio de uma reforma curricular conduzida predominantemente pela Cooperação Portuguesa. Consideramos assim, a importância da timorização da Geografia escolar, como um caminho decolonial, que contribui para que os professores timorenses sejam autônomos nos processos de elaboração, implementação e avaliação curricular, possibilitando a construção de outras formas de representações, sentidos e saberes geográficos diante de conteúdos curriculares prescritos.Palavras-chave: Ensino de Geografia, Currículo; Práticas espaciais; Decolonialidade; Timor-Leste.Abstract: In this article we approach the relationship between curriculum, culture and territory, within the context of school geography in East Timor, problematizing the coloniality present in different moments of constitution of this discipline. Based on the post-critical and post-structuralist perspective of Ernesto Laclau's Theory of Discourse, we understand that the development and implementation of a curriculum are fraught with discursive disputes between political contexts, institutional conceptions and social actors involved in this process. Methodologically, based on a documentary survey, interlocutions with Timorese education professionals and the analysis of the Geography Student Manual (10th year of schooling), we verify that this discipline, historically, has been geared to meet to the maintenance of Portuguese colonization, of the Indonesian territorial occupation, and currently, it is linked to a foreign geographical perspective, through a curricular reform conducted predominantly by Portuguese Cooperation. We consider, therefore, the importance of the timorization of school Geography, as a decolonial path, which may contribute for Timorese teachers to be protagonists in the processes of elaboration, implementation and curriculum evaluation, enabling the construction of other forms of representations, meanings and geographic knowledge in the face of prescribed curriculum content.Keywords: Geography Teaching; Curriculum; Space practices; Decoloniality; East Timor.

Teaching to the curriculum or teaching to the test

Purpose: This research aimed to investigate teaching practices that dominates the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination class to ascertain discrepancies between the prescribed and implemented curriculum. Research methodology: The study adopted ex-post facto research design of a survey type. 1719 students and 53 mathematics teachers participated in the study. Four instruments were used for data collection: Mathematics Content Completion Inventory, Teaching Depth Rating Scale(r=0.96), Classroom Observation Checklist(r=0.95) and Mathematics Learning Task(r=0.95). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical model in SPSS version 20. Results: Results indicated that Full implementation of the prescribed curriculum ranged between 46.2% to 86.5% for 54 topics, but only three out of them were indepthly taught. Teaching activities revolved around examination preparation, with the highest percentage of 48.55 among nine different categories. Limitation: This study was limited to only one state in Nigeria, one subject and one type of high-stakes examination. It can be replicated on different school subjects to provide greater generalizability. Contribution: Results will help stakeholders strategise on reforms that will promote in-depth teaching and optimal implementation of the prescribed mathematics curriculum. Keywords: Curriculum, High-Stakes examination, Mathematics, Teaching depth

Effects of adapted language materials in teaching listening on improving students’ English listening skill

So far the students of Le Hong Phong Junior High School, Phan Rang - Thap Cham City, Ninh Thuan province have been taught listening comprehension with textbook-based language materials which are too obsolete. Therefore, the students are often fed up with listening lessons; thus, their listening skill fails to improve after studying listening with textbooks for many years. Stimulated by this reality, the current study was carried out to investigate the effects of the adaptation of language materials in teaching listening on students' achievement of listening skill development. To obtain the above target, a conceptual framework of teaching listening with adapted language materials was developed. This framework was based on the theories of teaching listening and the implementation of language materials adaptation in listening skill instruction. Following the shaped conceptual framework, a training program with six listening lessons within the prescribed curriculum of ``Tiếng Anh 8'' by the MoET was conducted. The treatment lasted nearly four months from the middle of August 2018 to the end of November 2018 at Le Hong Phong Junior High School, Phan Rang - Thap Cham City, Ninh Thuan province. The results of the current study have shown that after the treatment of listening instruction with adapted language materials, students' achievement was proved to be significant in improving their listening skill. Also, teaching listening with adapted language materials got positive attitudes from the students. That is to say, adapted language materials were effective in improving students' listening skill development. Also, all the adapted listening texts and follow-up tasks highly met students' satisfaction. Accordingly, two major conclusions could be withdrawn from the findings that language materials adaptation was effective in (1) improving the students' listening skill, and (2) enhancing their interest in the listening lessons.

Teaching writing through task-based instruction: Exploring English teachers’ experiences

As educationists and policymakers have been concerned much in increasing the English proficiency of their citizens, educational policies on curriculums and syllabuses have moved increasingly towards various versions of learner-centered teaching approaches including task-based language teaching. TBLT is one of the widely discussed learner-centered approaches for the last few decades. It aims at developing students’ communicative skills through their active engagement in various tasks focusing more on meaning than on form. The study aims to explore English teachers’ experiences in teaching writing with respect to the intent of the secondary level English curriculum prescribed by the Curriculum Development Center, Ministry of Education, Nepal. The study is qualitative where five teacher participants were interviewed. The data were analyzed based on the taxonomy of task types by Willis and Wills (2007). The findings showed that the teacher participants are theoretically aware of TBLT, especially in teaching writing, and the intent of the prescribed curriculum; however, they are not able to fully bring their knowledge and skills into practice to meet the objective of the curriculum. Thus, the study purposes a way forward to strengthen teachers’ ability to bring TBLT theory into practice through training, workshops, research, and higher studies.

Para um perfil do conhecimento gramatical da geração do milénio

The academic year 2019/20 is marked by the arrival at university of students born in the new millennium. When this generation of students began to ‘learn grammar’ at school, teachers and other specialists were debating the terminology for basic and secondary education and the place of grammar in the curriculum was changing. In this article, we propose to contribute to a description of the knowledge about language to which millennials had access, more than a decade after the Terminological Dictionary (DT) became official (DGE, 2008). Assuming that there is a prescribed curriculum and a real curriculum, we start from the question what is the place of grammar in the curriculum to offer a comparative analysis of the discourse prescribed for the teaching of grammar in official curricular documents approved between 2000/01 and 2019/20. From this analysis, we present an empirical study assessing the grammatical knowledge in European Portuguese of 65 students entering higher education in 2019/20. For this study, we used a diagnostic instrument, assessing knowledge of different grammatical topics, mainly in the domains of morphology and syntax. The results obtained, which update data from previous studies on students’ difficulties in grammar learning, suggest that terminological standardization and changes in the prescribed curriculum have not solved all the problems in the teaching of grammar.