Beyond Words (Journal)
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Task Based English Language Teaching in Saudi Intermediate Schools
Get PDFThis study investigates the effectiveness and appropriateness of a constructivist instructional practice for EFL. It strives to determine whether adopting Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a more effective means to increase students’ reading comprehension when compared to that of the traditional teaching method. It also attempts to gain understandings that accompany TBLT implementation through constant comparison and contrast them with those that accompany the traditional teaching method. The mixed-method study covers quasi-experimental approach that uses one pretest and several posttests to collect quantitative data, as well as classroom observation and researcher log to collect qualitative data. The independent variable is the use of TBLT and the dependent variable is the students’ reading comprehension achievement scores. A Two-Factor Split Plot analysis with pretest as the covariate is used for analyzing the quantitative data. The analysis of qualitative data includes synthesis, rich, and detailed descriptions for classroom observation and grounded theory for researcher log data.
Keywords: Task Based Language Teaching, Constructivist Instructional Practice
Female Graduate Students on Masculinity: “His girly characteristics worried me and my husband”
Get PDFThis paper explores the masculinity discourses appearing in an internet discussion forum in a graduate class. The discussion forum itself is a part of a course related to contemporary issues, media, and identity in literature for children and young adults. In the forum the students are required to respond to the weekly readings, especially the ones related to children and young adult literature. This study is aimed at understanding how masculinity discourses are presented by the members of the forum. There are two main thematic discourses found in the discussion forum. The first one is the dominant discourses of masculinity in which boys should be boys by showing their macho sides. The second one is the subordinate discourse of masculinity—the feminine sides of men. Beyond the texts and academic discussions, these findings show that the hegemonic masculinity persists and unconsciously has influenced many members of the forum.
Keywords: masculinity, children literature, readers’ response, discussion foru
Learner’s English Proficiency and their Pragmatic Competence of Refusal Speech Acts
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The present study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between language proficiency and pragmatic comprehension of the refusal speech act among Iranian EFL learners. To this end, the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), as a proficiency test, was given to participants and they were divided into high and low level groups based on their proficiency scores. Then, a multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT) was given to both groups to elicit their pragmatic knowledge. The findings indicated that there was no significant difference between high and low groups in pragmatic comprehension. In other words, language proficiency was not the determining factor in the degree of pragmatic comprehension. Moreover, the results indicated that there was no correlation between learners’ language proficiency and pragmatic knowledge. Therefore, in order to have pragmatically competent EFL learners, they should be taught pragmatic functions and language norms of the target language in the language classrooms.
Keywords: Pragmatic comprehension, Speech acts, Refusal speech act, MDCT
Reflection as the Homebase of Teacher Education
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Reflection is widely accepted as a process to support, or even underlie, teacher education. However, the concept holds several confusions among education experts and practitioners. This article would then attempt to explain some confusing terms by reviewing relevant literature on this issue and to provide discussions on the benefits and challenges of reflection manifested in various options of reflective practicum.
Keywords: Reflection, teacher education, reflective practicu
Collaborative Learning or Cooperative Learning? The Name Is Not Important; Flexibility Is
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A great deal of theory and research, not to mention students’ and teachers’ practical experience, supports the use of group activities in education. Collaborative learning and cooperative learning are two terms commonly used in discussions of how and why to use group activities. This article looks at the issue of whether the two terms collaborative learning and cooperative learning are synonymous or whether they represent different conceptualisations of how and why students should interact as part of their learning. Those scholars who differentiate the two terms often see collaborative learning as more student centred and cooperative learning as a more teacher centred way to facilitate student-student interaction. The present article argues that collaborative and cooperative learning should be seen as synonymous student centric approaches, and that teachers and students, regardless of which of the two terms they use, should and will vary the ways they shape their learning environments in order to best facilitate the cognitive and affective benefits that student-student interaction offers.
Keywords: Collaborative learning, cooperative learning, flexibilit
Scaffolding in Business English Correspondence Classes at College Level
Get PDFLanguage teaching and education have been so long influenced by developmental psychology, namely constructivism. This idea enlightens the world of language teaching. Constructivism has received both praises and critics. Communicative approach followers claim that the principles in constructivism support their thoughts while the followers of a more traditional approach, namely, Grammar Translation Method, claim that the constructivism is just another experiment in language teaching, just like other methods. This article is based on a classroom action research investigation of how scaffolding instruction, the operational ‘terms’ of constructivism, based on its ‘ZPD’ (Zone of Proximal Development), play roles in language teaching, specifically in Business English Writing. The investigation has perceived several important aspects in scaffolding instruction for teaching Business English Correspondence, such as the importance of modeling or giving examples, as well as corrective and immediate feedback, together with positive reinforcement, to improve the learners’ performance. It showed that modeling or giving examples, peer reviewing, together with immediate feedback, brought significant influence on the learners’ perspective, about their learning performance.
Keywords: constructivism, Scaffolding, ZPD, Business English Writin
Indonesian EFL Teachers in the Swing of Curricula
Get PDFIn the era of standard-based education which is marked by the reforms in many areas of education including curriculum, it is necessary to understand how Indonesian EFL teachers coped with curricular change in the course of their profession. This study attempts to discover how EFL teachers in Indonesia perceive the curricular changes through their beliefs, attitudes, and practices. Employing an on-line survey combined with semi-structured individual interviews, the qualitative study began with mapping EFL teachers’ generic perceptions towards curricular change. The initial map was then used to probe major emergent themes through individual interviews on purposively selected participants. The result showed that: (1) teachers’ belief was perceived to reshape through adequate socialization and training. (2), it took time to witness teachers’ belief formation and eventually attitudinal change, and (3) as their beliefs and practices were reshaped, teachers’ practice was highly likely to change moreover when improvement in learning gains were achieved by the students. However, the latter is often dismayed by the implementation of high-stakes testing (The National Examinations). This article is closed with relevant recommendations based on the particular findings.
Keywords: Curricular change, teacher belief, teacher practice, qualitativ
Genre-based Pedagogy: A case of an Iranian ESP Business Management course
Get PDFGenre-based instruction has been latterly a very common method used in language courses. In spite of the various research conducted on academic genres, there are still very few studies which examine the learners’ perceptions of genre-based pedagogy, particularly in courses like English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Therefore, the present study aimed at considering the Sophomore Business Management learners’ perspective on genre instruction in their ESP course, at the University of Tehran. The focuses of the present study were the focal genres of textbook and teaching method in terms of the content feature. The data was collected by means of both quantitative and qualitative instruments which were subject to both statistical analysis and constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. Results of the study revealed that the practice of genres were relevant to some of the learners’ subsequent academic and non-academic performance. Furthermore, the results regarding the questionnaire section indicated that a number of learners could apply the genre features and they were conscious of them. By and large, it was concluded that the explicit instruction together with the provision of more English-mediated content courses, for practices outside of the classroom, can have a higher impact on ESP programs.
Keywords: ESP, genre-based pedagogy, content, textbook, teaching method, activities, learners’ perceptio