Vision: Journal for Language and Foreign Language Learning
Not a member yet
130 research outputs found
Sort by
University Students’ Preferable Types of Teacher Humor in English Classes
Full text linkThe current study aimed to explore what types of teacher humor EFL students prefer in their classes. The study was designed as a mixed-method approach, using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data in two different Vietnamese universities. One hundred fifty-eight university students responded to the survey, and eight out of them were recruited as the participants for the interviews. The study results revealed that the types of jokes (M=4.41), riddles (M=4.08), and language play (M=4.15) were most favored. Besides, the participants' demographic information, including their gender and majors, affected their preferable types of teacher humor. Specifically, males showed more positive attitudes towards teacher humor than their counterparts. In terms of students’ majors, there were differences between non-English majors and English-majored students’ perceptions of irony, teasing, language play, visual and physical humor. Regarding the students’ positive attitudes towards teacher humor, EFL teachers should learn more about valuable strategies for using teacher humor in their classes due to the fact that they do not need to have a sense of humor to use it effectively
Personality of a Good Language Learner: a Case Study in EFL Context
Full text linkThis case study aims to explore how the personality traits of a good language learner contributed to her success in language learning. Using a case study design, this study involved one student who met the criteria of a good language learner who became a champion of English competitions. This study used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test and semi-structured interviews to collect the data. The study showed that Meta's extrovert personality was described as talkative, confident, enthusiastic, and assertive. She understood a problem by talking about it and heard others' ideas in solving problems. As a sensing personality, she was objective and made decisions based on logic and facts to decide both sides. As a thinking person, she always worked with plans, and in making plans, she analyzed the pros and cons. She was objective and consistent in doing what she had planned. Her judging personality described how she dealt with their outer world. She had a decided lifestyle that had helped her achieve her goals in language learning by planning her language learning activities
Investigating the Effects of Subjective Norms and Trialability on English Teachers` Attitude toward the Use of Technology
Full text linkDespite the availability of many technological resources in academic settings and their determinant effect in the improvement of teaching and learning, it seems that teachers rarely used them. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of psychological variables on teachers` attitudes regarding technology use. In this research, most applicable models like the 'technology acceptance model', 'theory of reasoned action', and 'innovation diffusion theory' are used as the foundation for developing a conceptual framework. Variables such as 'perceived usefulness', 'perceived ease of use', 'trialability', 'subjective norms', and 'attitude' are recaptured from these models. The participants of the present research are high school English language teachers in Shiraz. The researcher uses stratified sampling to identify a representative sample from the population. The present study is administered by using five questionnaires to assess variables. The data are analyzed by means of path analysis. According to the obtained result, perceived ease of use is found to be affected by subjective norms and trialability, which in turn influenced the attitude of teachers toward using technology in their teachings. The results propose that the most influential factor on attitude is trialability (β= 0.38). On the other hand, perceived usefulness has a significant, influential effect on attitude. Subjective norms has an indirect but important effect on attitude
The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and their Teaching Style
Full text linkThe present study aimed to detect and compare the most preferred teaching styles by Iranian English teachers in public schools and private language institutes and investigate the possible relationship between EFL teachers’ teaching styles and aspects of their emotional intelligence. The participants were 100 EFL teachers from public schools and private language institutes in Iran, Shiraz. The Persian version of the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory and Grasha’s Style Inventory (TSI) was used to measure the teachers’ emotional intelligence and teaching styles, respectively. Concerning teaching style preference, formal authority style for EFL teachers of schools and facilitator style for teachers of the private institute was the most preferred styles. In addition, the least preferred styles were ‘delegator’ and ‘formal authority’ styles for public school teachers and private institute teachers, respectively. Regarding emotional intelligence, the lowest mean scores were observed in the Stress Management dimension, and the highest was related to the General Mood dimension. Furthermore, ‘general mood’, as a dimension of emotional intelligence, was highly correlated with ‘formal authority’ and ‘expert style’, both of which were public school teachers’ preferred styles. Public School teachers were relatively weak at using ‘personal model’, ‘facilitator’, and ‘delegator’ teaching styles. Thus, it is recommended that they adapt themselves to these styles
Students’ Strategies in Learning Speaking: Experience of Two Indonesian Schools
Full text linkThe present study was an effort to investigate strategies mostly used in learning speaking, which covered direct strategies and indirect strategies. To this end, 60 students from two different high schools in a city in Indonesia, in which 30 students for each school participated this study. In collecting the data, this study used close-ended questionnaires with Strategy Inventory Language Learner (SILL) consisting of 39 items, which were analyzed by using a scoring system. The results of the study showed that students of both schools generally used the same and different learning strategies. The same learning strategies used by the students of both schools were organizing and evaluating learning, referring to metacognitive or indirect strategies. Meanwhile, the different learning strategies used by the students of both schools occurred on five strategies at a medium level. From the six types of learning strategies, as indicated in this study, the most popular learning strategies which were used by students of both schools were organizing and evaluating learning
How Does She Learn English? A Case of a Successful Blind Language Learner
Full text linkThis study reports on a case study of a blind EFL learner. The purpose of the study was to explore a detailed situated data to examine to what extent it is feasible to be a successful language learner despite being visually impaired and lacking some learning resources. Interview data and the narratives of this EFL learner have revealed that her success was mainly based on her agentic interaction with the environment and learning context, her high motivation and strategic behavior, and her sustained efforts. The findings provide further insight into the role of learner in exerting control over contextual resources that frame learning and on how different factors interact with each other in the language learning process in the construction of learner identity and the strategies used by learners
Experiences and Challenges Perceived by Indonesian EFL Teachers as Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs) in Thailand
Full text linkThis study investigated the experiences and challenges perceived by Indonesian EFL teachers as the NNESTs in Thailand. The study used a questionnaire and interviews to collect primary data from seventeen Indonesian EFL teachers in Thailand. The study discovered that most of the Indonesian EFL teachers are eager to teach English in Thailand to have teaching experience abroad, to improve their English skills, and to earn higher salaries. Besides, the Indonesian EFL teachers did not find difficulties in adapting to the new cultures in Thailand, even though adjusting to the teaching environment became a challenge. Moreover, third, the Indonesian EFL teachers were treated equally as the NESTs, although their salaries were lower than those of NESTs. Lastly, the study reported issues in English classes, such as students' motivations, linguistic gaps, and plagiarisms, which trigger the creativity of Indonesian EFL teachers in English classes
Learning Multimodality through Genre-Based Multimodal Texts Analysis: Listening to Students’ Voices
Full text linkRecently, multimodality has attracted the attention of researchers, notably in the educational milieu. However, only a few studies reported on the way students perceived the use of Genre-Based Multimodal Texts Analysis (GBMTA) for teaching multimodality. After addressing the gap, this study focuses on students’ perceptions on the use of GBMTA in multimodality teaching in higher education. Sixty-nine students were involved in the study. Each of the students produced one journal through three meetings. The journals were then collected for document analysis and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings reveal that the students perceived GBMTA as facilitating them in the building of multimodal discourse analysis, challenges and solutions of comprehending multimodal teaching materials, planning better learning strategies in the future, engagement on multimodal learning issues, and multimodal text analysis practices. This study contributes to multimodality teaching or multimodal discourse analysis within genre-based learning
Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)-based Formative Assessment: A Proposed Model for Language Learning Assessment
Full text linkThe integration of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in language learning assessments has become a crucial issue in 21st-century learning. However, not many teachers are aware of the need to incorporate HOTS in assessments due to their insufficient knowledge and the absence of good examples. Further, there is not much research and literature on HOTS-based formative assessment that can be used as references. This research aims to fill the existing gap by providing a model of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS)-based formative assessments for English learning, especially in junior high schools. By employing research and development design, this research describes the validation of the assessment model. The proposed model of assessment may be used as a prototype for assessing language learning.
Exploring Students’ Motivation and Vocabulary Achievement through Labeling Method
Full text linkMotivation provides energies for students to decide efforts and they pursue it hardly. It is important to build students' motivation in learning English. Researcher's preliminary study toward the fourth grade of MIS Azzikir Kalialia in February 2019 indicated students' motivation was in the low category, while the result of the pre-test showed 35% of students did not achieve success standard in learning vocabulary. The objectives of the study is to explore how students are motivated by using labelling method and to improve students' vocabulary achievement by using labelling method. The number of the subject is 20 students. The instruments are the test, questionnaire, and observation under the Classroom Action Research method. After treatment, the questionnaire indicates students' motivation in high motivation and whole students achieve the standard of vocabulary achievement. Therefore, the labelling method promotes a way of English language teaching to build students' motivation and to improve vocabulary achievement in elementary grade