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1 – 10 of over 10000Leyla Yılmaz Fındık, İlknur Bayram and Özlem Canaran
The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainable development (SD) is conceptualized by pre-service English language teachers in Turkey and design a specialized course…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainable development (SD) is conceptualized by pre-service English language teachers in Turkey and design a specialized course syllabus on SD in English language teaching (ELT) in the light of the research findings.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study design and investigated the case of a state university in Turkey with the involvement of 133 pre-service English language teachers.
Findings
The findings indicated that most pre-service English language teachers received no training or a course on SD in their whole education life and tended to associate SD mostly with the economic growth of a country, followed by education, social and ecological concepts. It was also found that the majority of the participants had a unidimensional view of SD. No direct links with ELT have been detected from participants’ responses. The findings also pointed to the eagerness of the participants to receive an ELT-specific course on SD providing that the course involves interactive teaching and learning activities with reference to contemporary sources focusing on global and local issues, as well as studying the methods facilitating the incorporation of such issues into teaching practice.
Research limitations/implications
This research is based on the experience of one Turkish university with limited quantitative and qualitative data.
Practical implications
Based on the participants’ knowledge, views and suggestions, this paper contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence obtained from a local context and suggests a practical framework for a field-specific course syllabus aiming to enhance teacher candidates’ knowledge, skills and values related to SD and its incorporation into ELT.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study seeking to explore pre-service ELT teachers’ conceptualization of SD in Turkish higher education, and drawing on the research findings, the authors attempted to design a course syllabus targeted at pre-service teachers in ELT departments.
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This article aims to report on a qualitative study that investigates the enculturation of a group of pre-service English language teachers over four years of a Bachelor of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to report on a qualitative study that investigates the enculturation of a group of pre-service English language teachers over four years of a Bachelor of Education degree offered in a women ' s college in the United Arab Emirates.
Design/methodology/approach
Bourdieu ' s “thinking tools” of field, habitus and capital provide the overarching theoretical framework and analytic tools to examine the processes of enculturation which impact on the student teachers as they participate in a program based on Western-oriented theories and practices. The study draws upon data gathered from focus group interviews with student teachers in the first and fourth years of the program to provide insights into their ways of thinking as future Emirati English language teachers. The article discusses the priorities that emerge as these student teachers validate, or otherwise, the theoretical principles and practices legitimated through the program.
Findings
The findings suggest that influences bound by local, cultural and social forces contribute significantly to the student teachers ' perceived capacity to think and act as future Emirati English language teachers.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to one site but, given the findings, similar investigations into processes of enculturation and the appropriation or resistance of essential aspects of English language teacher training could be undertaken.
Originality/value
There is limited research into English language teacher education programs in the Arab world. This research has potential applications for English language teacher education programs where there is intent to effect educational reform.
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Haaveshe Ndeutalala Nekongo-Nielsen and Elizabeth Ndeukumwa Ngololo
Namibian principals are usually placed in leadership positions without orientation and are found to lack skills to supervise teachers in delivering instruction using the English…
Abstract
Purpose
Namibian principals are usually placed in leadership positions without orientation and are found to lack skills to supervise teachers in delivering instruction using the English language. Studies conducted elsewhere in the world found that effective school leadership is needed for the success of professional development programmes. The purpose of this paper is to explore principals’ lived experiences with regard to their roles in the implementation of the English Language Proficiency Programme (ELPP).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper followed a qualitative inquiry with multiple case study designs to explore principals’ lived experiences during the implementation of the ELPP. Ten schools were selected for the analysis, two from each of the five regions. The schools were selected on the basis of remoteness, the total number of teachers who participated in the ELPP, school phases (i.e. primary and combined) and pre-test scores. Principals were interviewed using exploratory open-ended questions, and data analysis produced five categories under which the results were presented.
Findings
The findings indicate that principals applied their individual logic to accommodate and implement the programme. They applied their individual productive leadership habitus to contextualise ELPP activities to ease their workload and appear corporative. Principals had significant influence on teacher learning and ensured successful implementation of a ministerial programme. Moreover, their leadership skills influenced the ways in which teachers received instruction and created a conducive learning environment. Owing to principals’ administrative, instructional and transformational leadership, many teachers participated and transcended upward and some were declared proficient in English.
Research limitations/implications
This study research the effectiveness of leadership regarding English professional development programmes in achieving goals, explore power relations between school principals and education officials when developing and implementing professional development programmes and establish more efficient ways of providing a better leadership model for professional development programmes to achieve goals.
Practical implications
This paper was limited to a few principals at rural schools in selected regions, therefore findings could not be generalised.
Social implications
There is a need for creating opportunities for interactions among all stakeholders who are involved in the development and implementation of English proficiency programmes and to build power relations and work as a team to benefit schools. In order to enhance programme implementation and improve learning outcomes, there is also a need to provide feedback at intervals and find solutions to challenges as a team.
Originality/value
Placing principals in situations without orientation triggered the need for specific leadership logic and particularities to be applied in a context for the success of the programme, which resulted in participation of more teachers in the ELPP. They applied their particularities and productive habitus through administrative, instructional and transformational leadership to enhance learning. Principals appointed English language teachers to instruct and mentor others, and consequently enabled some principals and teachers to exit the programme. Principals achieved these short wins upon realising that one has to cooperate with the authority to ensure achieving desired outcomes.
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Baburhan Uzum, Bedrettin Yazan, Sedat Akayoglu and Ufuk Keles
This study aims to examine how teacher candidates (TCs) in Türkiye and the USA navigate their intercultural communication skills in a telecollaboration project.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how teacher candidates (TCs) in Türkiye and the USA navigate their intercultural communication skills in a telecollaboration project.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty-eight TCs participated (26 in Türkiye and 22 in the USA) in the study. TCs discussed critical issues in multicultural education on an online learning platform for six weeks. Their discussions were analyzed using content and discourse analysis.
Findings
The findings indicated that TCs approached the telecollaborative space as a translingual contact zone and positioned themselves and their interlocutors in the discourse by using the personal pronouns; I, we, you and they. When they positioned themselves using we (people in Türkiye/USA), they spoke on behalf of everyone included in the scope of we. Their interlocutors responded to these positionings either by accepting this positioning and responding with a parallel positioning or by engaging in translingual negotiation strategies to revise the scope of we and sharing some differences/nuances in beliefs and practices in their community.
Research limitations/implications
When TCs talk about their culture and community in a singular manner using we, they frame them as the same across every member in that community. When they ask questions to each other using you, the framing of the questions prime the respondents to sometimes relay their own specific experiences as the norm or consider experiences from different points of view through translingual negotiation strategies. A singular approach to culture(s) may affect the marginalized communities the most because they are lost in this representation, and their experiences and voices are not integrated in the narratives or integrated with stereotypical representation.
Practical implications
Teachers and teacher educators should first pay attention to their language choices, especially use of pronouns, which may communicate inclusion or exclusion in intercultural conversations. Next, they should prepare their students to adopt and practice language choices that communicate respect for cultural diversity and are inclusive of marginalized populations.
Social implications
Speakers’ pronoun use includes identity construction in discourse by drawing borders around and between communities and cultures with generalization and particularity, and by patrolling those borders to decide who is included and excluded. As a response, interlocutors use pronouns either to acknowledge those borders and respond with corresponding ones from their own context or negotiate alternative representations or further investigate for particularity or complexity. In short, pronouns could lead the direction of intercultural conversations toward criticality and complexity or otherwise, and might be reasons where there are breakdowns in communication or to fix those breakdowns.
Originality/value
This study shows that translingual negotiation strategies have explanatory power to examine how speakers from different language backgrounds negotiate second and third order positionings in the telecollaborative space.
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Mohammad Javadi and Mehdi Sarkhosh
This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Iranian English teachers about their teaching efficiency through a specific practicum course, namely, language teaching…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Iranian English teachers about their teaching efficiency through a specific practicum course, namely, language teaching methodology. Drawing on a marketing education perspective, the researchers sought to measure the service quality offered in universities by examining teachers’ satisfaction with the curriculum.
Design/methodology/approach
Using quantitative gap analysis, the study evaluated the knowledge and skills of teachers in their preservice education regarding the perceived importance of knowledge and skills required in practice. The study involved 120 English as a foreign language teachers holding a BA degree from two universities in Iran, each with two to four years of teaching experience in the private sector. Data were collected using a 40-item semantic differential Likert scale developed by the researchers. The scale incorporated two components that assessed teachers’ perceived importance of knowledge and skills and their preservice educational preparation.
Findings
The findings revealed that most participants were overprepared in various items. However, there were some gaps in content knowledge and skills. Reasons for these gaps mainly included having adequate experience of and/or familiarity with course content, having completed relevant courses beforehand and imitating role model teachers. Teachers’ underpreparation was attributed to their lack of preparation in some specific subjects due to limited skill, practice, motivation, experience and familiarity with that content area.
Originality/value
This study explores the perceived knowledge and skills of Iranian English teachers and provides empirical insights into higher education service quality and customer satisfaction.
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Social constructivism in teacher education highlights the importance of social interaction between preservice teachers (PTs) and their cooperating teachers (mentors) for effective…
Abstract
Purpose
Social constructivism in teacher education highlights the importance of social interaction between preservice teachers (PTs) and their cooperating teachers (mentors) for effective mentoring. Mentoring relationship between PTs and mentors had to take a different path due to the pandemic when face-to-face education shifted to online education. The purpose of the present study was to explore online mentoring experience from the perspectives of PTs.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology was qualitative. 35 randomly selected PTs were interviewed after the completion of an eight-week online school experience course. Data obtained from focus group interviews were analyzed using pattern coding.
Findings
Overall, the PTs mostly had a positive online mentoring experience. They reported receiving sufficient contextual and technological support when needed with limited professional support. However, they expected their mentors to allocate more time and their university supervisors (USs) to control practicum schools and to provide more online teaching samples and guidelines. They indicated that when they did not receive supports this was entirely due to the pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
This research could inform USs and mentors who coordinate mentoring programs at schools and universities so that they might take an urgent step to restructure mentorship training, putting emphasis on the online aspect. Given the number of the participants, this research is limited in scope.
Originality/value
This research contributes to a body of research that investigates how online mentoring may be more effective. To create positive online mentoring relationships, following suggestions are provided to mentors: providing ongoing online support to PTs to overcome online mentoring challenges, spending an extra hour with PTs for reflection and making use of multiple contexts for PTs' professional ownership.
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Rebecca Lowenhaupt and Todd D. Reeves
Changing immigration patterns in the USA have led to a growing number of “new immigrant destinations.” In these contexts, opportunities for teacher learning are crucial for…
Abstract
Purpose
Changing immigration patterns in the USA have led to a growing number of “new immigrant destinations.” In these contexts, opportunities for teacher learning are crucial for developing the school capacity to serve the academic, linguistic and socio-cultural needs of immigrant students. In response, the purpose of this paper is to examine how schools in Wisconsin provided both formal and informal teacher learning opportunities to develop the instructional capacity to support recent immigrants, specifically Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs).
Design/methodology/approach
Using descriptive analyses of teacher and administrator survey and interview data, this study examined the focus and within-school distribution of formal professional development, as well as teacher collaboration as a mechanism for informal learning.
Findings
Most commonly, professional development focused on concrete strategies teachers might enact in their classrooms, rather than developing broader understandings of the needs of immigrant students. In addition, formal professional development commonly targeted particular groups of teachers, rather than faculty as a whole. Finally, general education-ELL teacher collaboration was most often deployed “as needed” and focused on particular student needs, rather than systematically.
Research limitations/implications
Future work might address the limitations of this study by examining teacher learning opportunities in new immigrant destinations in other locales, the quality and effectiveness of such opportunities, and other mechanisms for the distribution of expertise.
Originality/value
Findings suggest the need for more systematic and integrated approaches to teacher learning in new immigrant destinations, with an emphasis on pushing beyond the short-term need for instructional strategies to develop more holistic, collaborative approaches to integrating ELLs into schools and classrooms.
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The purpose of this paper is to report on a small-scale research undertaken to examine the preservice English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ collaborative understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a small-scale research undertaken to examine the preservice English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ collaborative understanding of lesson study. It constitutes the first of two empirical steps undertaken for integrating lesson study in initial EFL teacher education. The paper takes to the belief that preservice teachers’ understanding is a key factor that determines success or failure of lesson study projects and should therefore be investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
There were four preservice teachers who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected based on two procedures. Participants read the works of Lewis and Tsuchida (1999) and Dudley (2014) and were asked to collaboratively reflect about their readings on a WhatsApp platform. They were afterwards brought to a face-to-face discussion guided by questions mostly built from their previous reflections on the WhatsApp platform.
Findings
Participants have demonstrated a joint understanding which was essentially achieved due to the collaborative procedures. Likewise, participants have collaboratively reflected on the factors that could affect the process of lesson study and its application to EFL classrooms in Niger. These factors have been related to the issues in research methodology and the contextual learning culture.
Originality/value
The findings from this study draw attention to the need for teacher educators to use interactive and collaborative strategies while instructing preservice teachers about lesson study. The paper also offers insights about contextual factors which require preliminary and immediate actions before implementing lesson study in Niger.
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This study aims to benchmark Chinese TEFL academics’ research productivities, as a way to identify and, subsequently, address research productivity issues. This study investigated…
Abstract
This study aims to benchmark Chinese TEFL academics’ research productivities, as a way to identify and, subsequently, address research productivity issues. This study investigated 182 Chinese TEFL academics’ research outputs and perceptions about research across three Chinese higher education institutions using a literature‐based survey. ANOVA, t‐tests and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data from and between the three institutions. Findings indicated that more than 70 per cent of the TEFL academics had produced no research in 10 of the 12 research output fields during 2004‐2008. The English Language and Literature Department in the national university outperformed all other departments at the three institutes for most of the research output categories. While a majority of the participants seemed to hold positive perceptions about research, t‐tests and ANOVA indicated that their research perceptions were significantly different across institutes and departments. Developing TEFL research capacity requires tertiary institutions to provide research‐learning opportunities.
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