EFL teaching

The purpose of this chapter is to offer a glimpse of the range of classroom management–related efforts made by three South Korean middle school teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). I present the descriptions of the teachers’ classroom management practices in the form of individual teacher profiles, which were built from qualitative data gathered from students and from classroom observations. Two interesting findings emerge from the profiles. First, each teacher’s set of practices tends to be consistent with a metaphorical role that she appears keen to play (probably subconsciously) when managing the classroom. Second, effective classroom management seems to happen in tandem with consistently sound and stimulating teaching. I discuss the teachers’ practices in terms of their general effectiveness in their own and other contexts. Finally, I offer some practical suggestions for developing more efficient management skills.

Needs analysis is a distinct and necessary phase in planning educational programs and curriculum development. It is used to collect information about learners’ needs, focusing on the study of learners’ perceived and present needs, as well as their potential and unrecognized needs. The purpose of this study was to develop, design and administer a needs analysis survey to a group of primary school learners in order to investigate their attitudes towards EFL learning, their actual foreign language needs and their learning preferences regarding activities, topics and modes of work in the EFL classroom. According to the survey findings derived from the questionnaire used as a research tool, learners’ actual EFL needs, learning styles and strategies are not satisfactorily consistent or compatible with the current teaching situation. As a result, implications which focus on: a more learner-centered teaching methodology and materials, a ‘process-based’ curriculum development and action research in the Greek school context, as well as teacher’s further training education and professional development will be discussed.

Using multimedia inside the English as a foreign language (EFL) lassroom has been anticipated by several researchers and educators recently as a new necessary component of language learning. This is ascribed on the one hand to the continuous advancements in the new technological devices that might be used in presenting the various types of multimedia inside the classroom, and, on the other hand, to the fact that learners have started to acquire new modes of cognitive learning preferences due to their excessive daily use of these devices. This study investigates the appropriateness and practicality of using some animated or dynamic graphs and YouTube movies in teaching the pronunciation of English to Iraqi-Arabic learners of English as a foreign language. The two groups of the subjects who participated in this case study were taught using two different methods of teaching with and without using multimedia. Unlike those who were part of the control group, subjects belonging to the experimental group performed much better in their posttest results (62.31% of the experimental group average percentage and 47.09% of the control group average percentage).

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships among perceived English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' aggressive communication and students' affective learning and strategy use. 148 Greek-speaking EFL undergraduate students (39 males and 109 females), 18-23 years old (M=20.3±.68) participated in the study. According to the results of the study, perceived EFL teachers' verbal aggressiveness was negatively related to their argumentativeness and students' social and affective strategy use and affective learning. Simultaneously, the results of the regression analysis revealed that perceived teachers' verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness could significantly predict the variables of students' affective learning, social and affective strategy use. In the light of the aforemen-tioned findings, it can be concluded that teachers' verbal aggressiveness can have a negative impact on students' feelings, which can, in turn, affect their learning process.

Within the context of multidimensional education, the efficiency of language teaching and assessment in English involves depolarizing the educational process, disbanding boundaries, and encouraging students to actively participate in the educational process, with reference to the students-centered training process, adjusted to their learning needs and propensities as well as their specifically linguistic, cultural and social interests, focusing on skills building activities and exploring their metacognitive, cognitive and social potential. Taking into account the fact that the process of thinking is done by the linguistic categories, this paper aims to highlight the idea that metacognition through metalanguage underscores the role of the subject in both knowledge and learning process awareness by self-control, self-appreciation and the self-refinement of his/her own cognition. This fact allows metacognitive strategies in devising communicative language skills in English – according to CEFR (writing, reading, listening and speaking skills) – by making assessment strategies more efficient. The implementation of this strategy aims at mobilizing the cognitive, metacognitive and social domain in the process of coining communicative skill in EFL teaching (English as a Foreign Language), especially in the field of plurilingual skills development and intercultural communication though developing language acquisition and encouraging the use of language as well as acquiring skills as an advanced user.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

""In the context of rapidly expanding English-medium higher education in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), this thesis investigates how a group of native speaker English language teaching professionals perceive the social aspects of the environment in which they are working and the extent to which these perceptions affect the conceptualisation of their professional identities. Specifically, it focuses on how a complex interplay of cultural, economic, religious and political ideologies may impact upon the working lives of the respondents.
This research was carried out at eleven higher educational institutes in the UAE and data was gathered through interviews with English language teachers, teacher trainers and managers. The study’s findings reveal a complex, diverse and often conflicting picture of the way the respondents perceive the context in which they are working and a wide variety of attitudes regarding the ideological issues identified as impacting upon ELT in the region. However, emerging from the data was a dominant discourse of fear related to issues of power, religion, gender and money, maintained by uncertainty regarding the extent to which a censorial approach to teaching was required. The perceived precariousness of the respondents’ employment was also identified as the source of practises which raise ethical questions about the construction of professionalism in a context dominated by a discourse of fear and, in turn, implications for both practitioners and institutions.
Overall, this study reveals that in a context where ‘Gulf Arab/Muslim’ students interact with ‘Western native-speaker’ teachers, the preconceptions that often adhere to such labels in their respective societies may bear little resemblance to the attitudes, actions and beliefs of the individuals concerned. This raises implications both for the training of English teachers in the importance of contextual considerations and for the construction of the native speaker teacher in the literature.
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Modern cognitive theories focus on internal functions, thoughts and feelings which operate as mediation processes towards the motivation and modification of a behaviour or act (Dörnyei, 2001). On the grounds that these processes are essentially influenced by the learning environment, the cognitive approaches to motives have attributed an ‘environmental’ view to the issue the last two decades. The purpose of the present study is to broaden the context of the interpretative view of motives in education with specific reference to foreign language learning.

This paper explores how literature circles were introduced in the EFL lessons of a group of 3rd year ESO students.  Literature circles are school book clubs in which the students form small groups in order to discuss a text. They were first used in American Elementary Schools to promote literacy in the 1980s, but soon they began to be introduced in ESL and EFL teaching. In order to analyze the students’ responses to the activity, data was collected from classroom observation, the students’ written tasks, and a questionnaire designed for that purpose. According to the results, on the whole, the students responded positively to the activity. Nevertheless, aspects like the process of selection of reading materials and the students’ overuse of their mother tongue require further revision.

"* Preface *:

What makes laws endure or change? When a law changes, how does a tradition of legal interpretation justify the innovation in light of its legal precedents and foundational texts? What is the function of the reasons given for laws? What relationship does law bear to social values? These interrelated questions fall under the heading of philosophy of law, yet it is mainly through the study of history that they can be probed. Answering these questions in different cultural and historical settings is a prerequisite for developing a general theory of law, for it makes distinguishing universal elements from culturally-specific parameters possible. In particular, a culturally specific feature of Islamic law is its religious character. One may ask, therefore, whether the fact that Muslim legal traditions invoke sacred authority makes an essential difference to the way the questions posed above are answered. In other words, does sacred law operate in a fundamentally different way from secular law? This book explores these questions through a study of the largest legal tradition in Islam, namely the Hanafi school of law.

The book begins by creating a general model of juristic decision making that describes any legal tradition, Islamic or not, in terms of a number of parameters. It does not presuppose that all legal traditions are identical, for the parameters in the model may vary from one tradition to another.  [continued]"""""""

The study of second language acquisition has two perspectives that need to be analysed; from the teacher’s and the student’s. This study aims to establish what importance, if any, native English Speaking teachers (NESTs) attach to first language use in the South Korean EFL classroom. A native speaker is here defined as one who learned English as (one of) their first language(s), or mother tongue(s). The debate over L1 use in EFL classes has long been a continuous one; on the one hand there are those that adhere to a zero L1 in-class policy, an interactionist view (often the choice of an institution rather than the teachers themselves) and on the other hand are those who use the L1, a sociocultural view, to the extreme of the L1 being used in EFL classes indiscriminately. “The position (I) take is that the mother tongue represents a powerful resource that can be used in a number of ways to enhance learning but that it must always be used in a principled way.”(Gill; 2) This study aims to relate NESTs use of the L1 in EFL class to the teacher’s years of teaching experience and to the ways they have found most useful to use the L1 as a resource for their classes. As "little has been written about learning theory."(Richards & Rodgers: 2001, 161) this is why this study is of import; to focus on the importance, to the NEST, of the L1 as resource.

"This article examines the way that some EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in Green City (South of Brazil) understand and address the issue of cultural plurality as a cross-curricular theme (CPCCT) and issues of race/ethnicity. The reason that CPCCT is such an important issue in Brazil is that it is a diverse society with a tradition of upholding the myth of racial democracy. The main argument in this article is that, unless teachers have an adequate understanding of issues of race/ethnicity, issues of CPCCT will be addressed inadequately in schools. This article is based on a qualitative research I carried out in the south of Brazil. According to my findings, teachers’ own orientations to CPCCT might be associated with the celebration of diversity in Brazil, rather than challenging to deconstruct racism that exists in Brazilian society.
Key-words: race/ethnicity; EFL teaching; cultural plurality; critical race theory."

Bu arastirmanin amaci, Yabanci Dil Olarak Ingilizce (YDI) ogretmenlerinin saldirgan iletisim bicimleri ve ogrencilerin duyussal ogrenme ve strateji kullanimlari arasindaki iliskilerin incelenmesi amaclanmistir. Arastirmaya Yunanca konusan ve YDI lisans ogrencisi olan, 1823 yaslari arasinda ( =20.3±.68) 148 ogrenci (39 erkek ve 109 kadin) katilmistir. Arastirmanin bulgularina gore YDI ogretmenlerinin sozlu saldirganliklari, tartismaci olma durumlari ile negatif yonlu iliskilidir. Ayni zamanda regresyon analizi sonuclarina gore ogretmenlerin algilanan sozlu saldirganliklari ve tartismaci olma durumlari, ogrencilerin duyussal ogrenmeleri, sosyal ve duyussal strateji kullanimlari degiskenlerini anlamli duzeyde yordayabilmektedir. Bahsedilen bulgular isiginda, ogretmenlerin sozlu saldirganliklarinin ogrencilerin duygularina, dolayisiyla ogrenme sureclerine, olumsuz etkilerinin olabilecegi sonucuna ulasilabilir

This study investigated the instructors' perceived obstacles and needs in using the Internet for teaching English. Eighty-one instructors in the Department of English at Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) participated in the study. This study provides data related to the teachers' perceptions concerning Internet use, areas and barriers in language teaching. The study aimed to answer two research questions. Namely, what are the perceived obstacles to implementing Internet-based English as a foreign language teaching (EFL) teaching from the viewpoint of English Department instructors at IMSIU? And what are IMSIU English Department's instructors' perceived needs for training in using the Internet for language teaching? A survey and a semi-structured interview were used to collect the data. The survey involved three sections; the first section enquired about whether participants' need training on using the Internet in language teaching, the second section investigated the areas of potential training, and the last section investigated participants' barriers in incorporating the Internet in language instruction. The interviews involved three questions for further understanding. The findings showed that the perceived obstacles include cheating in online exams, lack of knowledge in using some applications, restricted time of some applications, and making online exams. The instructors demonstrated their eagerness to training. They also perceived presentation software, creating online exams, creating teaching materials, Videoconferencing, and teaching techniques, online classroom management, managing data sources, online assessment and evaluation, and basic knowledge of using technology as very necessary. The paper recommends designing a training course that considers the obstacles and needs suggested by the EFL instructors.

Professional English is a mandatory module in all Chinese universities, being taught alongside the students major. However, students often find learning English somewhat tedious as it can seem disconnected from their major and aspirations for the future. To try to overcome this shortcoming we have introduced the use of creative science as a means of linking language learning to exploring futuristic technologies with the aim of fuelling their engagement with language learning while at the same time helping them acquire valuable creative-thinking skills. In this paper we describe a two year trial be conducted at Shijiazhuang University where we operated this scheme with two batches of students, reporting our findings which show this approach produces significant learning gains over traditional methods. Finally, we describe our plans for developing an online EFL facility based around an i-Lab n the form of a virtual spacestation.

"Needs Analysis (NA) is a distinct and necessary phase in planning educational programmes and curriculum development. It is used to collect information about learners’ needs focusing on the study of learners’ perceived and present needs as well as their potential and unrecognized needs. In EFL learning, its main concern is the specification of learners’ language needs and NA procedures follow either a ‘product-oriented’ approach to EFL teaching/learning which explores objective needs or a ‘process-oriented’ view which investigates learners’ humanistic needs, the so-called subjective needs, including learners’ motivation, personal learning preferences/styles and language needs/wants.
Most current methods of EFL learning follow the ‘process-oriented’ view of NA because it offers learners the opportunity to gradually come to understand their needs and express them in a pedagogically useful manner through ‘self-discovery’. In particular, the ‘process-oriented’ NA interprets needs in a broader perspective and has been recognized as more conducive to learning. This is because it deals with the ‘how’ of learning (process) and tries to study the influence of factors, such as individual differences, which are likely to have a serious impact on effective learning. The role of the affective domain is essentially recognized through ‘process-oriented’ NA by seeking to cover learners’ attitudes and motivations, their interests and ego-involvement adhering to the main humanistic principle that ‘learners will learn best what they want and need to know’. Learners’ beliefs about language learning are also crucial because there may often be a conflict between teachers and learners as to what language learning and language teaching is. In this regard, feelings and attitudes are acknowledged as important as facts and intrinsic motives for learning are strongly emphasized.
In light of the above, the paper focuses on the ‘how’ of learning and its humanistic orientation to discuss how the ‘process-oriented’ view of NA may feed into meaningful and effective decision-making for a General English classroom in any teaching context by investigating the needs of a wide range of learners (primary/secondary/adult education). If our efforts in reforming EFL education for all learners are to succeed, the ‘process’ model is seen as most appropriate for the promotion of human development by enhancing the human-centered/anthropocentric approach to learning beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge. Issues, such as when, why and how to conduct a ‘process-oriented’ NA, its implications for the Common European Framework of Reference (CEF) and teachers’ professional development will also be discussed.


Key-words: needs analysis, process model, subjective needs, humanistic/anthropocentric, decision-making
"

Effective EFL instructors must have a good command of English, as well as sound pedagogical knowledge and adequate communication and classroom management skills. Professional development has been indicated as significant in developing these attributes. This comparative study was designed to analyze the viewpoints of EFL professionals working in Turkey and Lithuania using a scalar survey. The results revealed that Turkish instructors found their professional development experiences to be largely irrelevant, while the Lithuanian instructors perceived professional development as beneficial. In both groups, obstacles such as financial concerns and heavy teaching loads impaired the participants’ ability to grow professionally. The findings may draw attention to the ways in which existing professional growth opportunities are meeting or failing to meet EFL instructors’ needs.

This study looks at concrete techniques used by teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) in address- ing their students' grammatical, pronunciation, and word choice errors. Four ESL teachers were observed in four different occasions in intermediate level classes. As a way to explore the extent to which these teachers were aware of the ways in which they handled their students' errors, they were all individually interviewed upon completion of the observations. The data showed that students' errors were addressed differently de- pending on whether they occurred in accuracy practice or in communicative practice; more errors were corrected during accuracy practice. The four correction techniques identified were: correct form, elicitation, negative evidence, and repetition. The technique that was used the most was the correct form, followed by some form of elicitation, negative evidence, and repetition. The interviews revealed that the ESL teachers in the study did not have a concrete idea about the ways in which they addressed their students' errors.

The purpose of this study is to show through the interference of the native language, Arabic, in the English translation of the Egyptian students. It aims at probing some discrepancies in the Egyptian secondary stage students' proficiency in translation, attributed to lexical and semantic transfer from Arabic to English, reflected through a set of language tasks. The participants are 35 Egyptian secondary stage EFL students; studying English as part of their curriculum, during the second semester of the school year 2015-2016. The study raises the question: What problems arise from the linguistic of Arabic when translating different written texts into English and conversely? To achieve the goal of the study, the researcher analyzed the participants' errors in written translation texts. Since the study is mainly qualitative; some kinds of transfer/interference phenomena that occurred in the collected data were spotted, the possible communicative strategies that the participants employed, consciously or unconsciously, when translating were identified and exemplified and the reasons behind their occurrence were analyzed. Besides, a quantitative analysis was carried out to interpret the results using frequencies and percentages. Results showed that the problems that arise from interference are mainly lexical and semantic, and might be attributed to the participants' lack of knowledge and awareness of the source language as well as the target one. The study concluded that sometimes translations from Arabic into English and vice versa tend to lose original meanings or be misinterpreted compared to the source text because of linguistic transfer. It is suggested that raising awareness of liguistic transfer through focused attention on transfer errors alongside with systematic instruction and practice on translation might be valued by the students and seemed essential for them to achieve productive proficiency.