An Innovative Teaching Tool: Manga for KOMSAS’ Prose Comprehension

Studying literature encourages thinking both critically and creatively. It helps to understand and interpret life through the lens of prose, poems, essays, and novels. The KOMSAS genre of literary materials require good pedagogical practices to ensure academic success of a student. The pivotal focus of this study is to assess the advantages of using ‘Manga’ as a creative tool to teach KOMSAS or traditional Malay literary prose and to determine its effectiveness on students’ performance. The aim of the study was also to explore the impact of using ‘Manga’ to enhance creativity among students in the classroom where traditional prose comprehension is taught. A quasi-experimental design was chosen as methodology and a study was conducted with high school students of Form Four. The research instrument involved a statistical achievement test. Findings from this research indicated that there were positive changes in the performance of students who used this Manga module. Teaching methods which could stimulate students’ interest in learning were helpful for students. Additionally, this study also found that students’ perception towards the teaching methods used by the teachers influenced their performance The main finding also highlighted students’ increased creativity when ‘Manga’ was used as a pedagogical tool. Teachers and collaborators can use this study as a point of reference when promoting ‘Manga’ as a creative device to teach Malay traditional prose in today’s classroom.

A Comparative Analysis of Reporting Verbs Used in Literature Review Chapters of Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses of Chinese English Majors

Reporting Verbs (RVs), a crucial aspect of citations in academic writing, are used to report the work of other researchers. A Literature Review Chapter, as a key part-genre of any thesis, or a bigger genre where it is embedded, is the main place that has the highest number of RVs. Accordingly, this study aimed to analyze and compare the use of RVs between 30 bachelor’s thesis (BT) Literature Review Chapters and 30 master’s thesis (MT) Literature Review Chapters of Chinese English majors in terms of denotation and evaluation of RVs based on Hyland’s (2002) classification framework. The findings reveal that the RVs used in the BT Literature Reviews were smaller in amount and narrower in range compared with those in the MT counterparts. Regarding the denotation of RVs, Discourse Act RVs were found to be the most predominant in the BT corpus, while Research Act RVs prevailed in the MT corpus. Cognition Act RVs were the least used in the two corpora. Regarding the evaluation of RVs, factive RVs were the most frequently used in the BT Literature Reviews, while non-factive RVs were the most prominent in the MT counterparts. However, negative RVswere infrequent in both corpora. This study would increase the thesis writers’ knowledge on the significance of RVs, raise their awareness of employing RVs, and help them use RVs appropriately and effectively in writing their thesis and other academic writings. This paper also provides practical implications for teaching RVs in preparing research dissertations.

Applying PERMA to Develop College Students’ English Listening and Speaking Proficiency in China

Positive Psychology is applied to broaden the learning of a second language, whose application in schools is referred to as Positive Education. The PERMA model (Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) proposed by Seligman provides a way for positive education to flourish and open up a new perspective for Chinese scholars in different fields. Hence, the main focus of this study was to explore the effect of PERMA on students’ English listening and speaking competency in the Chinese context. This study used a quasi-experimental and a mixed method research design, which included developing a curriculum of PERMA in English speaking and listening, teaching intervention, and a speaking and listening competence test. A total of 240 students studying the same course from six classes, specializing in arts and science, participated in the teaching experiment with the same study level. A total of 110 students in the control group (CG) were taught using traditional teaching methods and the remaining 130 in the experimental group (EG) were subjected to a PERMA intervention for 14 weeks. The results of a one-way ANCOVA indicated a significant improvement in English listening and speaking proficiency of those in the experimental group due to the intervention of PERMA. The outcome of qualitative study conducted by semi-structured interview revealed that students had made progress in English pronunciation, oral expression in their speaking competency. They could also keep up with the speed of audio script and they understood key sentences and details in the listening process. The study pedagogically implicated that whole school approach, including the changes of curriculum, teaching skills, teacher education, and community involvement, should be explored for a new framework of Positive Language Education.

The Correlation Between Perceptions on the Use of Online Digital Interactive Media and Reading Comprehension Ability

The use of online interactive media in English teaching and learning has been significantly increasing since past few years. The media got more popular after distant or online learning was encouraged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergence of digital learning management systems such as Edmodo, Google Classroom, and Moddle further intensified the implementation of not only education-based platforms such as British Council and Quizziz, but also popularized non-education media such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter which were intentionally designed for entertainment. This research is designed to foster students’ perceptions on the use of online digital interactive media and correlate the perceptions with their reading comprehension ability. A total of 41 students from different middle and high schools, who lived in various orphanages, participated in this research. Close-ended Likert-scale questionnaire was distributed to obtain the data of students’ perceptions while reading comprehension test was adapted from British Council and implemented to see the correlation between the students’ perception and their reading comprehension ability. The finding shows that more than 75% of the students believed that online digital interactive media were very crucial and helpful in language learning process. Moreover, the mean score of the reading comprehension test indicated positive correlation between students’ perceptions and their reading comprehension ability. This study implies foster students’ perceptions in the use of online interactive media highly correlate with their reading comprehension performance.

Chasms of Communicative Language Teaching: Perils of Pupils in Primary Schools of Bangladesh

The success of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach at primary schools of Bangladesh has recently been questioned seriously. No measures have yet been taken to remedy the apprehended failure of CLT programs in the country. This inquiry focuses on the perils of pupils in the forms of shaming, failure, and fear for the tyranny of the current CLT curriculum. A mixed research method was used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the learners’ situation through a questionnaire survey with participation of 211 CLT practitioners, an FGD with 12 participants and semi-structured interviews with 15 English learners. Along with lack of teacher empowerment mechanisms, other challenges for young learners (YLs) included problem of enduring class rules, their inability to cope with difficult texts, fear of failure in lessons, tests, and physical and psychological sufferings inflicted on them during, before and after the delivery of the lessons. The findings reveal the need of a modified CLT curriculum with provisions for innovative pedagogy, learner care and learner empowerment. Provisions for use of L1 Bangla in lesson delivery, inclusion of learner culture and local context in the teaching-learning of English are recommended to ensure expected outcomes.

Saudi EFL Students’ Production of Conventional Expressions in Second Language Pragmatics

This study compared and explored the differences and similarities in the production of conventional expressions between native English speakers and non-native English speakers represented by the Saudi EFL learners. It also examined the pragma-linguistic differences in the production of conventional expressions. Forty-seven native English speakers and forty-seven non-native English speakers participated in this study. The questionnaire consisted of nineteen scenarios representing different speech acts. Students were requested to reply to these scenarios as if they were real-life situations. The findings established that almost half of the comparisons between Saudi EFL learners and native English speakers presented similarities in the production of conventional expressions. However, there were some pragma-linguistic differences between the native English speakers and some of the Saudi EFL learners, such as misunderstandings due to the misuse of expected expressions, verbosity, the use of expressions that formal speakers considered rude, and transferred from their first language. These findings provide an empirical vision to the status of Saudi EFL learners conventional expressions. Future research could investigate conventional EFL expressions locally and globally.

Practicing Communicative Language Teaching Approach of English Grammar Teaching: Teachers’ Perspectives in China Colleges

The communicative language teaching (CLT) approach has been extensively used in English teaching in recent decades. Many scholars have investigated CLT and English teaching from various perspectives, but few have examined teachers’ attitudes towards the CLT approach and its usage in English grammar teaching. This study aimed to investigate the rationale, the teaching effects and suggestions of English teachers in using CLT in English grammar teaching in China colleges. A qualitative research method was adopted and data was collected through an open-response questionnaire from 13 English teachers of 6 universities in China. The analysis of the data collected revealed that most of the China English teachers used CLT. Their rationale for using it are summarized in this study. The results show that CLT positively affects China college students’ English grammar learning despite some limitations, especially in cultivating their communicative competence, motivating their study interests, and modifying the classroom atmosphere, which also helps build students’ confidence. Moreover, most of the participants recommended using CLT to conduct English grammar teaching, and eight suggestions were presented to help English teachers conduct the CLT approach to grammar teaching. This study could prove a good reference for teachers who would like to teach English grammar under the CLT approach and enhance their understanding of CLT.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Value of Multicultural Awareness Represented in an EFL Textbook

Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in contexts with limited multinational and transcultural backgrounds, such as Saudi Arabia, should be able to communicate with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Students’ awareness should be enriched with an understanding of the diversity among people around the world. EFL textbooks are one of the platforms for raising students’ awareness of cultural and linguistic differences. This study aimed to explore the cultural content of an EFL textbook taught at an international primary school in Saudi Arabia via the adoption of critical discourse analysis as a methodological approach. It focused on the multicultural values represented in the EFL textbook geared toward teaching senior primary school students. The study identified a number of values, including fostering positive perspectives concerning old tribes and people, appreciating the lives of other people, respecting the hard efforts made by some nations and understanding different cultural values in different parts of the world. There is found a lack of consideration of the cultural values of some countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. Therefore, this study implicates stakeholders in Saudi Arabia to demand their cultural values be depicted in teaching and educational material.