Improving Classroom Observation through Training: A qualitative Study in College of Technology in Oman

Historically, classroom observations have been conducted in educational establishments for different purposes such as evaluation of teachers, promotion, curriculum design, or professional development. In this study, the researchers aimed to improve the effectiveness of the classroom observation process in an English Language Center based in a College of Technology in the Sultanate of Oman. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology and semi-structured interviews as the data collection tool. In the first stage, observers and teachers were interviewed to understand the existing classroom observation process. Based on the initial data, a training program was developed with materials from international good practice projects. Finally, the changes were identified through the second set of interviews with the participants. The major results of this study suggest that the training program contributed positively to the perceived effectiveness of the classroom observation process, reduced anxiety related to this process, and led to more balanced participation from both the observers and the teachers. Moreover, the implementation of the pre-observation conferences started taking place and post-observation meetings included more constructive feedback. This study adds to the literature on the importance of classroom observation training with a practical training program. This practical approach can be adopted in similar contexts with some adaptation to meet the specific needs of educational institutions. The researchers suggest a qualitative research approach to accompany any such future training to measure the effects of the training program.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES IN VIRTUAL CLASSROOM TO MAINTAIN EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND CLASSROOM CULTURE: A CASE STUDY AT ONE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

Effective classroom management supports the teacher classroom teaching profoundly. During Pandemic COVID 19 most classroom teachings are conducted in virtual classroom that have been greatly affected the way how teacher manage his or her own classroom. This causes some challenges for teachers in managing his or her virtual classroom. This study was conducted in the form of a case study in one vocational school in West Bandung region, West Java, Indonesia in which one English teacher was purposively selected as the participant of the research and one class consisted of 27 students. The objectives of this study are: (1) to find out the challenges of teacher in classroom management in virtual classroom (2) to find out what classroom management the teacher used in her virtual classroom. The researchers employed a qualitative case study which used classroom observation and teacher interview as main instrument. Data from classroom observation and interview transcript were analyzed according to the themes, coding and categorizing to answer the research questions. The results indicate that the teacher experienced many challenges in the virtual classroom, such as the students’ unreadiness to join the virtual class, internet connection problem, restricted time so that the teacher immediately taught the core material, students turned off the camera and sound, students learnt unattentively, less interaction and inappropriate class control. Some suggestions are given to the challenges occurred in their virtual classroom such as, by a) joining the virtual classroom earlier; b) checking the students’ attendance first; c) optimizing the teacher-students interaction during whilst- learning and post learning activity; and d) giving quizzes at the end of the lesson to make the students are more enthusiastic in learning. In this study, it is found that the teacher employed a combination of democratic and leisurely classroom management style. This finding leads to the point where a new style for virtual classroom management called Maye’s Conceptualization Model is proposed.

Psychological Problems Faced by Nautical Students of Politeknik Bumi Akpelni Semarang in Speaking Maritime English

This study aimed to explain: (1) psychological problems faced by nautical students in speaking maritime English and it causes, (2) the effects of psychological problems to speaking maritime English, and (3) the class situation that expected by the students. This study employs a qualitative case study. In order to collect the data, the researchers used classroom observation, questionnaire, and semi-structured interview. This study revealed that: (1) There were only four of five prominents pychological problems faced by nautical students in speaking maritime English, they were; fear of mistakes because most of the students were afraid if they could not deliver the message clearly, mispronounced, and then being laughed by their friends; shyness because they felt that their friends had better ability rather than themselves; anxiety because they did not understand English well and some of them were lacking of vocabularies, grammar, and they were afraid of being negatively evaluated by their friends or lecturers; lack of confidence because they felt that their English were bad and other friends were better than themselves, so they did not believe in themselves and felt insecure. However, they did not have problems regarding their motivation because they really wanted to sail abroad. (2) There were effects of psychological problems because it made the students’ performance was not maximal yet. (3) Most of students wanted a relaxed, happy, and supportive speaking class situation, while some of them expected that speaking class was not too relaxed because they have to be forced in learning.

Identification of the Gaps between Actual Performance and Expected Performance of English Teachers at Elementary Level

Teachers hold central figure in the propagation of effective education in educational milieu. The present study attempted to explore the key performance indicators (KPIs) of English teachers working in government schools at elementary level of education. The KPIs were identified and determined by examining the gap between their existing performance and their expected level of proficiency. The study focused its attention to evaluate the gap in English teaching domain only. The data was collected and analyzed quantitatively in this survey oriented descriptive research. A total number of 200 students and 40 teachers were restricted as the sample of the study taken from 04 tehsils of district Bahawalpur. Furthermore, data was collected by developing and administering 02 instruments i.e. questionnaire and classroom observation. The data taken from observation checklist was quantified to obtain empirical results of the investigation. The findings of the study revealed significantly huge gap between the existing and desired level of teachers’ proficiency. This gap was relatively apparent in teachers’ language proficiencies as well as instructional capabilities. Majority of the teachers couldn’t demonstrate the optimal standards of English teaching due to multifaceted factors. Furthermore, study revealed that there is dire need of target oriented instructional workshops and teacher trainings to be arranged for teachers to get the maximum outcomes.

Improving Classroom Observation through Training: A qualitative Study in College of Technology in Oman

Historically, classroom observations have been conducted in educational establishments for different purposes such as evaluation of teachers, promotion, curriculum design, or professional development. In this study, the researchers aimed to improve the effectiveness of the classroom observation process in an English Language Center based in a College of Technology in the Sultanate of Oman. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology and semi-structured interviews as the data collection tool. In the first stage, observers and teachers were interviewed to understand the existing classroom observation process. Based on the initial data, a training program was developed with materials from international good practice projects. Finally, the changes were identified through the second set of interviews with the participants. The major results of this study suggest that the training program contributed positively to the perceived effectiveness of the classroom observation process, reduced anxiety related to this process, and led to more balanced participation from both the observers and the teachers. Moreover, the implementation of the pre-observation conferences started taking place and post-observation meetings included more constructive feedback. This study adds to the literature on the importance of classroom observation training with a practical training program. This practical approach can be adopted in similar contexts with some adaptation to meet the specific needs of educational institutions. The researchers suggest a qualitative research approach to accompany any such future training to measure the effects of the training program.

Listening to Saudi EFL Learners’ Voices: Demotivating Factors Affecting Learning

A plethora of research has considered motivation instrumental in achieving the requisite objectives in learning a language regrettably overlooked the most critical component called demotivation that indubitably affects the learning process substantially. The researchers have taken the daunting task to figure out the demotivating factors that affect Saudi learners’ English proficiency. The research is qualitatively based on the responses obtained from semi-structured informal interviews with twenty-six respondents and classroom observation inputs from over 125 students learning English as a foreign (EFL) language at Jazan University in Saudi Arabia. The sample of this study responded to a self-structured questionnaire to get qualitative data and after twofold data analysis, six demotivating factors related to students; teachers; environment (internal & external); attitude towards EFL learning; course materials, and time constriction were identified. The findings and suggestions reckon students, teachers, parents, and administrators to give utmost priority to address demotivation factors to facilitate even EFL learning to timely achieve not only the prerequisite learning outcomes but may also lead learners to be autonomous, infuse interest, confident with 21st-century skills, better teacher-learner relationship, and change in cognitive behavior, and non-cognitive aspects which includes perception, attitude, beliefs and willingness to learn English language.

EFL Young Learners’ Problems Encountered in the Learning of English Speaking: Teachers’ Perspectives

Teaching speaking to Indonesian EFL young learners is still problematic. It happens not only because English is not used in daily activities but also the government’s regulation to some extent does not support that. This qualitative study aims to describe the problems faced by EFL students in the learning of English speaking with teachers’ perspectives. The samples of this research were three teachers from three different elementary schools in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia. The data were collected by using questionnaire, interview, and classroom observation. The data were then analyzed by 1) memoing or transcribing the interview data, reading them to make notes and finding the most important information that might be useful for the study, 2) describing the data to find complete explanation of context, setting, and interactions of participants, 3) classifying data—to break down the obtained result and put it into categories, and 4) interpreting the data to find the meanings of the data by connecting the findings with previous studies, personal experience, and expert advice to find the best result. The result showed that EFL students’ problems in the learning of English speaking came from some factors. They are 1) Native language, 2) Age, 3) Exposure, and 4) Motivation, and 5) Learners’ Autonomy. Keywords: speaking, Indonesian EFL students, young learners

NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSES: DEPICTING THEIR STRATEGIES TO TEACH VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

The aims of this research are; (1) to know the strategies used by native English teachers to teach speaking to the students of Vietnam National University of Agriculture, (2) to describe how the strategies contributed to the students speaking skills, and (3) to explain the problems faced by native English teachers in EFL speaking classes. This research is descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The data were collected through classroom observation, interviews, and documentation. It presents the result of the study in the form of a descriptive explanation. The findings of this research are the strategies used by native English teachers to teach speaking to the students of Vietnam National University of Agriculture, namely (a) group discussion, (b) role play, (c) brainstorming, (d) storytelling, (e) story completion, (f) describing picture, (g) game (guessing the word), (h) using target language/interview. Based on those strategies, the results show that the strategies help students to improve their speaking skills, vocabulary, and confidence. Also, it can help students to solve problems, increase sensitivity, think critically, and express their ideas. Furthermore, the findings of the problems faced by native English teachers in speaking class are (a) pronunciation, (b) lack of confidence, (c) lack of ending sounds, (d) no vocabulary and grammar.