scholarly journals Investigating teachers’ perceptions of syntactic complexity in L2 academic writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Folkert Kuiken ◽  
Ineke Vedder
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Argumentative Texts

This paper aims to investigate how L2 teachers perceive syntactic complexity in L2 writing, and to what extent teachers’ judgements are related to current theoretical views. The main reason for conducting the study is that the majority of studies that have investigated the development of syntactic complexity in L2 have been grounded in hypothesis-testing research; few studies, however, have explored whether teachers’ perspectives on syntactic complexity reflect the development of syntactic complexity as hypothesised in the SLA literature. Two groups of language teachers (eleven of L2-Dutch and sixteen of L2-Italian) were asked to evaluate individually the syntactic complexity of a sample of argumentative texts written by L2 university students of, respectively, Dutch and Italian. In the panel discussion that followed, teachers discussed their motivation behind their assigned scores and the feedback they had proposed. The results revealed that teachers tended to focus primarily on accuracy and comprehensibility. When their comments were concerned with syntactic complexity, both similarities and differences (related to target language and writing context) emerged between Dutch and Italian. Teachers’ reflections appeared to be only partly aligned with existing theoretical views on syntactic complexity.

scholarly journals La valutazione della complessità sintattica nella classe di lingua

EL LE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ineke Vedder
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
University Students ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Argumentative Texts

This paper aims to investigate how language teachers perceive syntactic complexity in L2 writing and to what extent teachers’ judgments are related to current theoretical views in the research literature on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Sixteen L2 teachers were asked to evaluate the syntactic complexity of a sample of argumentative texts written by L2 university students of Italian. In the panel discussion that followed, teachers discussed the motivations behind their assigned scores and the feedback they had proposed. The results revealed that teachers tended to focus primarily on accuracy and comprehensibility, and much less on syntactic complexity. Teachers’ reflections appeared to be only partly aligned with existing theoretical views on syntactic complexity in the SLA literature.

Teachers’ perceptions and the implementation of the adapted communicative approach in Libya

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdurahman Milad ◽  
Dwi Rukmini ◽  
Dwi Anggani ◽  
Rudi Hartono
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Communicative Approach ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
The City ◽  
Meaningful Communication

This study instigates the teachers’ perceptions towards the implementation of the adapted communicative approach to teach English language in Libyan high schools in the city of Khoms. The participants were six teachers of different gender-based high schools. The study followed a pure qualitative method to collect and analyze the date, and the data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire. The findings reveal that the majority of English language teachers in Libyan high schools in Khoms city have positively perceived the implementation of the communicative approach (CA) to teach English language in their high schools’ contexts. They agreed to the majority of the questionnaire’s items such as: the CA emphasizes the communication in the target language and emphasizes that the learners need meaningful communication. All the participants said that they modify the principles of the communicative approach to meet the students’ needs and goals and most of them have agreed that the allocated time is not enough to complete the lesson in the classroom. This study draws out the pedagogical implication that the implementation of the adapted CA to teach English language in high schools in Libya can be quite adaptable, especially when the teachers have to fulfil the students’ needs.

scholarly journals Qualities of a Good and Effective Teacher: Slovak EFL Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers’ Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Rastislav Metruk
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School Teachers ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

A plethora of researchers have attempted to examine the characteristics of a good and effective teacher in order to enhance the process of teaching foreign languages. In line with those explorations, this study aims at performing a comparison between Slovak pre-service EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers’ and Slovak in-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of a good and effective language teacher. To achieve this objective, a convenient sample of Slovak university EFL students who were pre-service teachers (n = 74) and Slovak lower-secondary and upper-secondary school teachers (n = 63) were employed in the study. Using a 57-item Likert-type questionnaire, independent-samples t-tests were conducted to investigate the potential differences between the perceptions of the pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. Moreover, the 10 highest-mean and 10 lowest-mean items of both groups were analyzed. The research results revealed that statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were detected in only 12 of the 57 items. Furthermore, a closer examination of the differences and the items with the highest and lowest means indicated that the pre-service teacher participants favored traditional teaching more than their in-service teacher counterparts, who preferred CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) to a greater extent. The potential implications of these findings indicate that the fundamental principles of CLT such as employing plenty of pair-work and group-work activities, facilitating learners’ autonomy and responsibility for their own learning, or varying classroom interaction strategies deserve more careful attention during pre-service teacher training.

scholarly journals Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Error Correction in Speaking Classes: A Qualitative Study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuriye Değirmenci Uysal ◽  
Selami Aydin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Error Correction ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
State University ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teacher Training Programs ◽  
Correction Strategies

Limited studies have been conducted on the effects of error correction on acquiring oral proficiency and the teacher’s role as error corrector. Thus, the present study aims to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of error correction in their speaking classes, reasons and types of errors they correct and their error correction strategies. The sample group in the study consisted of 15 English instructors working at a state university in Turkey. The data collection instruments consisted of a background questionnaire, reflections, interviews and essay papers. Results showed that EFL teachers seem to make corrections to improve learners’ accuracy during speaking, grammar and vocabulary knowledge and pronunciation skills and that EFL teachers believe that error correction may contribute to habit formation in terms of self-correction among students, pragmatic and appropriate use of the target language, learners’ accuracy and fluency. Another conclusion was concluded that teachers concentrate on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary errors that directly distort meaning while speaking, and that they seem to use various strategies to correct errors. It was recommended that the curricula of teacher training programs should include topics to raise awareness of the issues such as reasons to make corrections, situations that require corrections, error types and correction strategies.

scholarly journals ACADEMIC WRITING CHALLENGES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN PAKISTAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Dr. Syeda Naureen Mumtaz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Process Approach ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Writing Skill ◽  
Problematic Area ◽  
Product Approach

This descriptive qualitative research sought to explore as what would be the best writing approach adopted to teach academic writing skill to the undergraduate university students to identify and minimize the identified problems. The aim of the study was to strengthen the academic writing skill of university students. For this purpose, thirty undergraduate students were selected and involved in focus group discussions to highlight the problematic area in the field of academic writing. Thematic analysis helped to understand the problems faced by the students and suggestions were made on the basis of the study’s findings. The study revealed the students’ inability to use appropriate vocabulary. These students lacked the skill to express themselves in their own words, and often their written work would look patchy. English being the foreign language to the students hampered their ability to think in the target language. The present study contributed to understand the problems and suggested process approach of writing to be adopted by the faculty to overcome the academic writing related problems. Key Words: Process Approach, Product Approach, Genre Approach, Academic Writing                

Correct Writing and Spelling in the ESL Classroom

2015 ◽  
pp. 269-287
Author(s):  
Seetha Jayaraman
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Esl Classroom

Writing is an activity that serves as a link between theory and practice. Learning to write involves the basic level of learning to spell a spoken word or phrase and the advanced level of learning to write creatively. This chapter discusses the practical challenges faced by the teacher and student in learning to spell words and applying the rules of grammar in English. Authentic examples are drawn from writing samples from the ESL classroom, produced in a session of timed writing when teaching academic writing skills to undergraduate learners in Oman's Dhofar Region. The results of the study point to the use of a bilingual approach as a very useful method for bringing out the similarities and differences in the use of the target language. This minimizes Mother Tongue interference in students' writing in English.

scholarly journals Effects of Exploratory Practice (EP) on Team Teachers’ Perceptions in Japanese High Schools

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Takeaki Hiratsuka ◽  
Gary Barkhuizen
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Team Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Japanese High Schools

A team-teaching scheme involving local Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) and foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) has been in place in Japanese high schools since 1987. Team teaching, including teachers’ perspectives on their team-taught classes, has attracted research attention. However, how research in the form of Exploratory Practice (EP; Allwright & Hanks, 2009) affects team teachers’ perceptions over time has not been documented. Data were collected for 4 months from team teachers in two high schools using various qualitative methods. Content analysis (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007) was employed to examine the data, and it was found that an EP experience mediated the participants’ perceptions through different cognitive development processes, namely, replacement, synthesis, and reconfirmation. It was also revealed that the experience sometimes had only a minimal effect. The divergent effects seem to have stemmed from individual differences, pair discrepancies, contextual factors, and research conditions. The paper concludes with implications of the study. 日本では1987年以来、日本人英語教諭（JTE）と外国語指導助手（ALT）によるティームティーチングが英語授業内で実施されている。現在まで教師の意識調査を含めたティームティーチングに関する研究が盛んに行われているが、teacher research（教師主導的実践研究）、特にExploratory Practice（探求的実践活動）(EP; Allwright & Hanks, 2009) が教師の認識にどのような影響を及ぼすかは検証されていない。本研究では２つの高等学校で働くティームティーチングペア２組から質的手法を通して４ヶ月に渡ってデータが収集された。データはその後content analysis（内容分析法; Bogdan & Biklen, 2007） を用いて分析された。その結果、教師のEPに影響された認識発達の過程は大きく３つ（置換、統合、再確認）に分類されることが判明した。同時に、EPの影響は時に最小限に留まることも明らかとなった。これらの影響に関する相違は教師個人の特徴、ペアの構成、周囲の環境、そして絶えず変化する研究過程に起因することが示唆された。本論では最後に、言語教師教育における実践的な提言を行う。

scholarly journals Iranian EFL Teachers' Perceptions Toward Teacher Training Courses

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Atefeh Nikoobin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Interview Session ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
The Status ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

The present study aimed to evaluate teacher training courses (TTCs) in several institutes in Isfahan, Iran, to explore the teachers' perspectives on the status and characteristics of this program. More specifically, this study sought language teachers' perceptions on the aspects (duration, intensity, instructors, practicum) and contents (topics covered in the program, teaching the skills, theory) of the TTC program they attended. For this purpose, 34 language teachers were required to fill out a questionnaire to explore participant teachers' attitudes toward the TTC program elements. Furthermore, the teachers were invited to an interview session in order to share their opinions about the overall usefulness of teacher training courses they had attended. The findings revealed that, overall, the teachers were satisfied with different elements of this program. From the teachers ' point of view, the most useful aspect and content of the program were "instructors" and "teaching the skills", respectively.

scholarly journals Pre-Service Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Research Skills: A Qualitative Study

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eda Elmas ◽  
Selami Aydin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Efl Teachers

While research skills seem significant for effective and successful foreign language teaching and learning, few studies focused on how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers perceive research skills in the EFL teaching and learning processes. Research also lacks how EFL teachers perceive research skills and to what extent they are aware of the role, teacher as researcher. Thus, this study aims to explore pre-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of research skills for a deeper understanding of how their perceptions of research skills affect or contribute to the teaching and learning processes. The sample group in the study consisted of 44 pre-service EFL teachers studying at a state university. A background questionnaire, diaries, reflections and interviews were the tools to collect qualitative data. Results showed that research activities develop pre-service EFL teachers’ content knowledge, research skills and target language proficiency, while they perceive several problems during the process. The study suggests that research skills should be a must course in pre- and in-service teacher education programs.

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