Beyond Words (Journal)
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Discourse Analysis in the ESL Classroom
Get PDFThis article attempts a user-friendly definition of discourse analysis. By defining it in this manner, the authors hope to encourage teachers to use it in their ESL classrooms. To this end, they suggest certain concrete measures that bring discourse analysis into the ESL classroom
Selecting Extensive Reading Materials
Get PDFThis article offers guidance to teachers and students in selecting materials for extensive reading (ER). First, the article explains characteristics of ER and reviews some of the potential gains for students who do ER. Second, the article considers criteria for teachers to bear in mind when selecting ER materials. Third, the article then suggests ways that teachers and students can find ER materials. Fourth, guidance is provided to students for when they select what to read from among the ER materials available to them. Finally, advice is given on integrating ER with course textbooks
Cultural and Linguistic Obstacles for ELLs
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This qualitative study aims to assess which aspects of learning a second language English language, learners find challenging and to uncover the role that culture plays in learning a second languages as observed by the students themselves. Students were asked to make note of how cultural differences, assumptions, and biases have either enhanced or hindered the teaching and learning process. It was found that students experienced a sort of indirect marginalization or cultural “othering”. Integration into the mainstream population of society, of the community, or even of the school was described as a major challenge for this particular group of students. Consequently, students had much difficulty achieving a comprehensive understanding of the language and surrounding culture
Rhizomatic Learning: “As… When… and If…” A Strategy for the ASEAN Community in the 21st Century
Get PDFThe article begins with developments in the ASEAN region. In particular, it focuses on demands generated by the goal to build an ASEAN Community characterized by great diversity amongst member countries. The demands created by this diversity are exacerbated by the immense changes taking place in the 21st century, such as unprecedented richness of information and communication systems, unprecedented mobility and the technological empowerment of ordinary people to create or find their own personal solutions in a just in time, just enough and just for me fashion. This leads to the conclusion that learning needs will be vastly different, individual and largely unpredicted and unpredictable. This realisation implies the necessity to develop adaptable, flexible, yet intellectually coherent learning frameworks which will provide the necessary guidance for creating appropriate learning environments. The article proceeds to construct such a framework on the basis of a five-point analysis of how human perception, understanding and knowledge-construction operate. It then develops a learning structure based on the generation of personal learning environments (PLEs) connected to a networked information technology infrastructure which is essentially rhizomatic in nature (i.e. where learners determine the ways that they navigate through information and feedback mechanisms to construct personally-relevant and appropriate knowledge). The article ends with a short scenario to illustrate the workings of this structure and concludes with some remarks about current research in the area in both Asia and Europ
Teacher Personal and Professional Identity Integration: Alsup’s Exploration of Teacher Identity Discourses
Get PDFThe Effectiveness of Adjunct Class on The Mastery of Vocabulary And Course Content of Students of Accounting Department
Get PDFThe paper reports a classroom action research that aimed to determine the impact of a Content and Language Integrated Learning on the mastery of vocabulary and of course contents of a group of students in the Accounting Department of Universitas Ma Chung. It also intended to identify their opinions about the effectiveness of such approach. To achieve these objectives, a Time Series Design was used in a Classroom Action Research framework to introduce an adjunct class to the accounting class. The baseline data in the form of their vocabulary mastery and knowledge of the course contents were gained before the adjunct session was given. Then, the adjunct sessions were given for a period of two months. A few tests were administered to measure their progress in the mastery of vocabulary and course contents.
A comparison was then drawn between the scores of the baseline data and the subsequent measures. In general, although they gained better mastery of new words, they failed to utilize them to increase their mastery of the course contents. Further exploration into the interview data reveals that most of them did not feel any significant assistance in mastering the course contents, although many of them admitted the benefit of mastering new vocabulary.
There are some possible causes of the results. First, the limited duration of the adjunct sessions was felt to hinder the effectiveness. Second, the explanation in the adjunct sessions were not matched quite well with the focus during the main content course. On the basis of the results, the recommended points are the matching between the emphasis of both classes, and the lengthening of the duration of the adjunct sessions
English in Indonesia
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Indonesia is a multilingual country with various local languages and language courses on various foreign languages. Among the foreign languages, English and Chinese are the prominent ones. This article aims at portraying the position of English in Indonesia among the languages spoken and used in Indonesia, especially Chinese. The discussion focuses on English in business, education, and pop culture. In the context of Englishes, this article also discusse
The Student-Bloggers’ Voices on the Contribution of EFL Writing Through Blogging
Get PDFBlogging is an effective way to help students write better as it positively enhances the students’ EFL writing skills. The following study is an attempt to evaluate student-bloggers’ opinions on blogging activity as it gives valuable contributions to student’s EFL writing skill. The research aimed at investigating student-bloggers’ attitudes towards the application of class blog in an informal learning situation. A descriptive case study was conducted to get more information on blogging contributions to student-bloggers’ EFL writing both for the process and the product of writing. The subjects were the student-bloggers of a language course whose blogging activity was intense. The data gathering was employed by probing interview and observation. Additionally, the thorough and meticulous analysis on the product of the writing was performed and scored using a rubric. Findings gathered from the interview depict the benefits and positive contributions of blogging to student-bloggers’ EFL writing. Blogging was certainly seen as a fun writing activity by the student-bloggers. It resulted from the fact that contrary to school learning, while blogging the students experienced autonomous learning, getting direct feedback from readers, and most importantly a complete freedom in writing. Some of blogging contributions for EFL writing are multi-literacy, direct feedback from readers, motivation, autonomous learning, critical thinking and language awareness, networking, freedom to write, and self confidence