Beyond Words (Journal)
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Helping Students Create Their Own Books the Dialogic Way
Full text linkThis article explores one technique that is consistent with the student-centered paradigm in language education: student-generated books. First, benefits of student-generated are dis-cussed. Then, the article explores the crucial area of maintaining student ownership of their own books. The next topic explained in the article is why dialog is important as the students are developing their books. Finally, it is suggested that book creation works for students of all ages and levels, with examples given of students at the early childhood level and of second language students at university level
Higher Order Thinking Questions in Teaching Reading in a Private Primary School
Full text linkIn order to meet up the needs of acquiring the 21st century skills, students need to be equipped with critical thinking skills. In English language learning, one way to foster students’ critical thinking is through Higher Order Thinking (HOT) questions in reading. This study unveils the implementation of HOT questions in Grade 5 reading classes in a private primary school in Surabaya. The study in particular was aimed to find out (1) the structure of the teacher’s questions, (2) the types of the teacher’s questions, and (3) the students’ responses. This study used the New Bloom’s taxonomy as the underlying instrument for classifying the types of questions and the students’ responses. Four class observations, four teacher’s interviews and two students’ focus group discussions were conducted in this study. The recorded data were transcribed and analyzed to get the results. The results of the data analysis indicate that 65.15% of the total of 66 questions used by the teacher in the classroom were HOT questions. Among all types of HOT questions, the New Bloom’s analyze questions were used the most with 37.88% of the total questions. HOT questions were mostly addressed during the whilst-instructional activities. Interestingly, the HOT questions were answered in different forms: oral answers, dramatizations and presentations. Related to this finding, the teacher was quite satisfied with the students’ responses since they reached the same thinking level, although sometimes it is necessary for the teacher to simplify his questions in order to get students’ responses
Metacognitive Strategies in Teaching Reading to Primary Students
No full textThis study is aimed to cater to the needs of professionals in raising young learners’ awareness of their own reading comprehension, educators can implement metacognitive strategy as one of the solutions. Therefore this study aims to know the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy in teaching reading to primary students. The grand theory employed in this study is the six sequential reading strategies proposed by Brown, Palinscar and Armbruster’s (1984). The research method is pre-experimental study with three groups of third graders as the participants. The researcher designed a reading assignment for each treatment, as well as a reading test as the research instrument. The pre-test and post-test data was analyzed using paired t-test. The data shows a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores among all three groups
The Effect of Story Reading on Incidental Lexical and Grammatical Collocation Learning by Iranian EFL Learners
No full textThe purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of story reading on incidental lexical and grammatical collocation learning. Moreover, it was an attempt to scrutinize whether there was any significant difference between incidental lexical and grammatical collocation learning. To this end, 36 Iranian EFL learners attending Sadra English Institute in Yasuj participated in the study. They were selected based on the result of quick placement test (QPT) as 28 out of 36 elementary EFL learners. A total of 28 learners were assigned into one experimental group (n=15) and one control group (n=13). The result of the pre-test and post-test analysis using One-Way ANCOVA and MANCOVA revealed the fact that that there was statistically significant increase in collocation knowledge of the learners. In addition, participants performed significantly on grammatical post-test than lexical post-test after the treatment
The Effect of Online vs. Offline Flipped Instruction on EFL Learners' Writing Ability
Full text linkThis study aimed at examining the effectiveness of computer-assisted flipped instruction on the writing ability of upper-intermediate Iranian EFL learners and their attitudes toward it. A mixed-method approach was used. A quantitative method employing the quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used. Twenty participants were selected based on convenient sampling method and were divided into an online flipped instruction group (N= 10) and an offline flipped instruction group (N= 10). A paired sample t-test and independent samples t-test was used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed that the learners who received online flipped instruction outperformed those who received offline flipped instruction, regarding their performance on the posttest. Based on the findings of this study, it was argued that the learners in the online group had a positive attitude toward this method
English Teaching and Learning in a Korean University Perceptions of International Professors
Full text linkThe purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of international faculty towards English teaching at a local university in South Korea. For data collection, a comprehensive survey questionnaire was administered to 71 international faculty teaching English at the same university. The survey consisted of items of questions concerning faculty’s second language learning experience, teaching/learning philosophy, and teaching techniques and skills. Description of the responses revealed the following results: 1) Second language learning experience of faculty helps improving quality of instruction through understanding students’ learning difficulties; 2) Faculty’s view of language was mostly holistic while that of language learning was inclusive of different perspectives; 3) The role teachers was mainly that of a facilitator in a student-focused class; 4) For those applying CLT, it was used to engage students within a student-centered classroom; 5) A general maxim of teaching was the golden rule: “Do unto others, as you would have done unto you.”; 6) Views on teaching explicit knowledge varied widely among faculty; 7) The majority of faculty chose to correct both global and local errors; 8) A number of strategies were utilized in order to help students overcome reluctance to speak such as letting students decide on what they want to learn and helping them realize it is okay to make mistakes; 9) In order to enhance students’ communicative abilities, an innovation for general English education programs was suggested
Advantages of Combining Small and Large Groups: Implications for Second Language Education
Full text linkThis paper looks at the value of second language students, teachers, and others interacting in very large groups of tens and even 100s of members of the same group. The paper begins by looking at disadvantages of these larger groups and then at their advantages, before providing advice on how to facilitate groups regardless of their sizes. This advice includes dividing resources and roles, promoting a common identity, encouraging rewards and celebrations, using groups of different sizes, taking advantage of communication technology, and paying attention to the development and use of collaborative skills. The authors’ conclusion is that very large groups can be beneficial if those involved carefully attend to the groups’ functioning, such as by dividing those very large groups into much smaller groups, including groups of 2-4 members
Designing Game-based Learning To Foster The Cross Cultural Cognition
Full text linkBoredom would be the biggest challenge in realizing a successful learning - effective and joyful learning. Boredom could happen in any learning when the students learn what they do not need or and they do not enjoy the conventional way of learning. In this case study, the writer would design game-based learning to foster the cross cultural cognition in Business Cross Cultural materials. By designing and playing games for learning BCC materials, the writer tried to create the effective and joyful learning. In this research, the writer would use fives phases of the research in designing the game-based learning. Moreover, the writer would investigate their joy and effectiveness of learning by using two different groups of totally 40 participants of Business English students that learn BCC - the experiment group that would use the game-based learning and the controlling group that had learnt without it. And the research results are there was insignificant difference in cognitive learning but the game-based learning could enhance the joy and motivation of learning