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Can Vision 3 Notch up a Win over Pre-university English Textbook?
Get PDFThe present study aimed to evaluate the newly compiled English book for the third grade of senior high school, currently called the 12th grade, and the previous English textbook for pre-university students. To this end, 80 experienced teachers, with the experience of teaching both books, were asked to complete an eclectic checklist comprising 38 items and evaluating the book in terms of nine major criteria, namely General considerations, Vocabulary, Grammar, Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing, Pronunciation, Supplementary materials, tasks and activities. Following that, 10 teachers were also interviewed in order to deepen the quantitative data. The findings indicated that the teachers were more satisfied with the newly introduced book to the educational system. Furthermore, the mean values revealed that the teachers rated the speaking and listening sections as good or satisfactory while they ranked the supplementary materials criterion as the least satisfactory one. As regards the other criteria of the checklist, the findings demonstrated that the teachers were satisfied to some extent. In general, the results confirmed that notwithstanding the dramatic positive changes in Vision 3, it still requires to undergo major revisions in order to meet the EFL students’ needs. Hence, the results would benefit the materials developers in order to locate the areas for improvement
Materials Development in EALP Legal Writing Courses
Get PDFWhile the field of materials development has grown in the past twenty years, covering areas like EAP and ESP, there remains a need to elaborate further the strategies and to develop a process for developing materials for EALP courses such as legal writing. Legal writing in particular poses unique challenges like the complex system of legal writing genres and the interferences created by multiple languages, cultures, and legal systems. This article expands on existing strategies offered by the scant literature on legal writing materials development. The article takes into account the work of materials development scholars who have proposed SLA-derived principles. The article also considers factors that affect materials development, including learner, teacher, and contextual factors. Additionally, the article considers the role of theoretical frameworks in shaping decisions in materials development. Most importantly, the article relies on methods in legal writing pedagogy to inform the strategies and process for legal writing materials development. The article ultimately proposes a process for developing materials for legal writing courses that requires the consideration of the (1) purpose, (2) audience, (3) course and curriculum requirements, (4) length and number of assignments, and (5) sociocultural and legal context of the materials
Establishing a Center for Language Education in a Chinese University: Challenges and Opportunities
Get PDFIn today’s globalized world, more degree programs worldwide are being taught through the medium of English, meaning that learners, most of whom are non-specialist language learners, need to demonstrate a high level of English language competence. As a consequence, foreign language provision in higher education has seen a mushrooming of language centers. Nowhere is this more the case than in China, which in recent years has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of new universities being established, together with associated language centers. This article explores the process of establishing a language center at a Chinese university, from the viewpoints of the teachers and students directly affected as a result. The article describes the shift from teacher-led classes to learners taking responsibility for their own learning. To accommodate this shift, professional development of teachers was and remains key to planning for expansion and growth of the center. Teaching quality and a student-centered atmosphere are the main drivers of the center. Staff and student feedback is used to illustrate how planning to serve the diverse needs of university populations is crucial, given that further development is likely to happen at a dizzying pace
Preface to the Special Issue: Interculturalism in Second Language Teaching
Get PDFThis is the edited volume related to the broad but interesting thematic area of “Interculturalism in Second Language Teaching”. The multilingual and multicultural panorama of the current world intensifies the need for placing interculturalism at the center of the research and teaching activity. Especially, in classrooms with linguistic and cultural diversity, interculturalism should be promoted as a source of teaching and learning while important research has been carried out towards investigating the contribution of interculturalism to second language teaching practices. Within this context of linguistic and cultural diversity, students are encouraged to develop their intercultural competences, so that they can be prepared to act in a diverse world. In particular, students should develop their intercultural sensitivity and awareness, which can help them to realise and appreciate the differentiations among people from different cultures and achieve mutual understanding. In this way, they are aimed to also develop their intercultural communication strategies, which are proposed by the Council of Europe as important mechanisms for facilitating the communication and co-existence of people in multilingual and multicultural environment and they can be of great help for students’ interactions and exchanges in a classroom. Students need to develop such competences of communication, participation and interaction which can facilitate their work and activity within a classroom with students from different countries, while such competences can be extremely important for them later in life
Interculturalism in Content and Language Integrated Learning Classes: Research Perspectives from European Policy to Greek Reality
Get PDFΤhe CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach has been proposed as an effective approach for students’ education in the 21st century. Although it was initially proposed for students of higher education, CLIL has become especially attractive for students even in pre-school education. This paper focuses on the importance of CLIL implementation in fostering intercultural competencies among students who are engaged in CLIL programs. More specifically, this paper covers a theoretical review on CLIL and its development, while special emphasis is placed on the position of CLIL in the priorities of the European Council within the context of promoting multilingualism in Europe. CLIL aligns itself with the European Language Policy of improving language learning in its member states and with the EU Commission’s objective of EU citizens’ competence in European languages other than learners’ mother tongue. The paper ends with references to organizations that promote the implementation of CLIL across Europe, while special emphasis is placed upon CLIL in Greek education. 
Is Materials Development Progressing?
Get PDFIn this article I am going to review the ‘progress’ which L2 materials development has made both as a practical pursuit and as an academic discipline since my first contact with materials development in the 1960s. I am also going to evaluate the current situation, to make predictions about future developments and to make recommendations to teachers, to materials developers, to researchers, to publishers and to Ministries of Education. As I have reviewed the ‘progress’ of materials before (in, for example, Tomlinson (2012); Tomlinson & Masuhara (2013); Tomlinson & Masuhara (2018)) my review will be brief and my main emphasis will be on my evaluation and recommendations
Encouraging Learners to Become Better-informed Consumers of L2 Learning Opportunities
Get PDFThe notion of language learners as informed consumers developed by Cohen and White (2008) takes up the issue of how best to develop the knowledge, skills and awareness of language learners given the infinite variety of language learning opportunities. The informed consumer approach focused not only on developing awareness of both formal and informal learning environments, but also on enhancing the ability to critically appraise those opportunities and to optimise language learning within them. In this article we trace how the notion of language learners as informed consumers has been drawn on in innovative studies of technology-mediated language learning; a common focus of those studies has been on ways of fostering awareness of the potential of particular technology-mediated learning environments and the relevant knowledge and skills which would support the active and effective use of those environments. We show how strands of the informed consumer approach have been used to investigate expertise and affordances in electronic dictionary use (Levy & Steel, 2015) and the trajectories of distance learners of Chinese (Tasker, 2010). In the latter part of the article we consider the experiences and reflections of learners of Arabic in a study abroad context in Jordan as part of Project Perseverance; findings from that project open up new dimensions of what it means to be an informed consumer of language instruction in relation to specific situational and cultural norms and constraints. To conclude the article identifies not only the distinctive contribution of the informed consumer approach but also how it sheds light on the ways in which individuals seek out and curate personally meaningful sites for language learning within their life worlds
Changing Market and Travel Trends: Marketing Strategies of the Department of Tourism-accredited Travel Agencies in the Cordillera Administrative Region
Get PDFThe emergence of new trends in a fast-changing environment is inevitable – the tourism industry is not an exception. Thus, travel agencies, which provides help on travel and tourism-related services, must be highly competitive in order to adopt to these changes to rise above the competition. This research has been comprehensively conducted by interviewing managers and/or owners of the five selected travel agencies in Cordillera Administrative Region to determine their marketing strategies in today’s generation. With the use of thematic analysis, the researchers came up with three themes; traditional marketing, digital marketing and future platforms. Where, traditional marketing refers to marketing strategies that does not utilize the internet. While, digital marketing refers to marketing strategies that utilizes the internet through various digital platforms. The results indicated that most of the Department of Tourism-accredited Travel agencies in the Cordilleras uses traditional marketing to acquire and retain customers. Furthermore, they have been utilizing digital marketing tools to widen their reach and increase customer traffic; however, their digital marketing is still on entry level. Having said that, they have shared their plans on their future platforms they wish to fully utilize to adapt the digital competition on travel and tourism industry as well as to succeed in customer acquisition and customer retention
Exploring Motivation, Self-concept and Engagement in an Emerging Educational Setting: A Mixed Methods Case Study of 4 EAP Classrooms in Iraqi Kurdistan
Get PDFThe aim of this mixed methods case study is to explore EAP (English for Academic Purposes) classes at universities in Kurdistan, North Iraq through two conceptual frameworks: The Actional Phase of The Process model of L2 motivation; (Dörnyei and Ottó, 1998) and Complex Dynamic Systems theory (Larsen-Freeman, 1997). The study explores the relationship between teaching practices and ability grouping on students’ academic motivation, academic self-concept, and classroom engagement seeking both teachers and students’ opinions, beliefs and perspectives. Employing an exploratory sequential research design, a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies was used to analyse data from questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. A complexity lens highlights the interrelatedness of the three constructs in an emerging educational setting as a complex dynamic system. Moreover, it reveals that several aspects of Dörnyei and Ottó’s (1998) model can be enhanced by and related to the Complex Dynamic Systems framework. 
Budget Revenue Forecasts, Errors and Impact on the Indebtedness of the Municipalities of Maranhão
Get PDFThis study aimed to identify the factors that lead to the indebtedness of the municipalities of Maranhão. The study covers the years 2014-2016. Economic methods with panel data and socioeconomic variables were used: municipal GDP per capita, FIRJAN tax management index (IFGF), and level of education of the public manager. In the results, it was possible to observe that the budget revenue forecast error positively affects the 1% level of debt significance in the year, which means implications for one unit of Real (BRL) of budget revenue, incorrectly predicted in the LOAs of the municipalities Maranhão, leads to an increase between BRL 0.49 and BRL 0.62, in the debt of the relevant financial year. As variables such as GDP per capita, the IFGF and the dummies and the level of education were not statistically significant to explain the increase in debt, allowing to deduce the forecast error (planning) of budget revenue by itself, it is an important determinant that contributes, with high statistical significance, which impacts on the increase of the indebtedness of the municipalities of Maranhão