Facilitating reflective practice via Instant Messenger Cooperative Development

Reflective practice may be considered an important part of the teaching process. By reflecting on their action, teachers can continually examine their classroom teaching and embrace possibilities for professional growth and change. This article describes how teachers can utilize Instant Messenger Cooperative Development (IMCD) (Boon, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2015); an online framework for reflecting on pedagogical practice. To illustrate IMCD in action, it examines a session in which a teacher explores ways for her learners to recycle and review language learned in previous lessons. The article then discusses the benefits of IMCD as an aid for reflecting on and finding workable solutions to pedagogic puzzles with the hope that readers of the article may go on to utilize IMCD for their own reflective practice purposes

The use of video-based reflection to facilitate pre-service English teachers’ self-reflection

As self-reflection is crucial for improving the professional identity of pre-service teachers, it is paramount to discover ways that may assist them to reflect more effectively. This study investigates how self-reflection may be enhanced by the use of video recording as compared to that which is facilitated only by students’ memories. Employing a descriptive qualitative analysis method, the research uses reflection journals and interviews from pre-service English teachers of two available microteaching classes of an English language education program in an Indonesian private university in Central Java. While the students in one class used video recording to help them reflect, those in the other class relied on memory. The findings showed that the reflections supported by video recording were more specific and more analytical, focusing more attention on management-related issues of the teaching. Those from the memory-based group, on the other hand, tended to be general and descriptive with more accounts on personal feelings

Language learning strategies among Vietnamese EFL High School students

Despite productive research on language learning strategies (LLS), LLS is still a multifaceted topic subject to controversy. Thus, previous researchers have encouraged conducting further LLS research in different educational contexts and student population. The current study was conducted to examine the LLS use among high school students, a relatively neglected population in previous LLS studies. Participants in the study were 83 Vietnamese tenth-graders who were administered the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) by Oxford (1990), including six subscales: memory-related, cognitive, compensatory, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. The results suggested that high school learners utilized a wide range of language learning strategies at a medium level of frequency, indicating a necessity for more explicit LLS instruction. While metacognitive strategies were reported as the most frequently utilized strategies, affective strategies were the least. Cognitive strategies, which were strongly related to other LLS groups, tended to play the central role in the language learners’ LLS employment. Gender was confirmed to be a significant factor that influenced the students’ LLS usage only in the case of social strategies. Pedagogical implications regarding strategy instruction were discussed

ESL and content teachers’ collaboration

This paper reviews the earlier studies to synthesize the benefits and challenges of ESL and content teachers’ collaboration and discusses Amanda’s recent experiences of collaboration in a middle school in the Southeastern U.S. Previous studies document the collaborative benefits (DelliCarpini, 2018), which include teacher learning, increased ESL students’ participation, and strengthened professional partnerships. However, ESL and content teachers’ collaboration has yet to become a routine teaching practice in the U.S., particularly in secondary mainstream classrooms, because of the reported challenges (Dove & Honigsfeld, 2018), such as teachers’ incompatible personalities and beliefs (Arkoudis, 2003), conflicting schedules (Peercy, Ditter, & DeStefano, 2016), inconsistent administrative support (Villa, Thousand, Nevin, Liston, 2005), and the ESL teacher’s relegated role compared to the content teacher (Ahmed Hersi, Horan, & Lewis, 2016). In order for ESL and content teachers’ collaboration to be a pathway for equitable learning outcomes for ESL students, educational stakeholders, namely content teachers, ESL teachers, and school administrators, need to share responsibility for planning for and teaching ESL students. This begins with school administrators who can foster a culture of collaboration, and content and ESL teachers who can take steps to build and strengthen collaborative partnerships. More specific recommendations are discussed in the conclusion

“I’m like kentang”: Bilingual Indonesians construction of identity in the era of transnationalism

This study looks at bilingual Indonesians who experienced living abroad as sojourners. The study aims to explore their identity experiences and struggles as influenced by their interactions with other language(s) and culture(s). An open-ended questionnaire and interview questions were used to obtain information on the respondents’ short biodata and experiences abroad. Nineteen respondents participated in an online open-ended questionnaire, and a few respondents volunteered to be interviewed. The findings reveal that these bilinguals Indonesian sojourners find it challenging to explain themselves from the monocultural essentialists view of identity. They identify themselves strongly with both their home and host countries and cultures but remaining staying open to new possibilities of identities. Yet, there are also traces of contradicting and conflicting selves of belonging in both cultures

Comparing the effect of ICT and longhand note-taking instructions towards learners’ comprehension test results

With the advancement of technology nowadays, taking notes by hand seems old-fashioned to most students nowadays. They prefer typing using their various gadgets since it will be done faster, especially when there is a lot of information to be recorded. However, the use of ICT devices (such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets) in the classroom has a tendency to be distracting for the students – it is very easy for the students to take out their gadgets and click on Facebook or other applications during a dull lecture. The purpose of the present study is to find out whether note-taking using ICT devices affect the students’ understanding of the lecture. This study will use a quasi-experimental design, with 52 English department students of a private university as the participants. They will be divided into two groups as the control and experimental group. Participants of both groups were instructed to watch a video from TED talks twice. While watching the video, the control group was instructed to take notes by hand, while the other group was instructed to take notes using their various devices. After that, participants had to do a comprehension test of the lecture video. The results revealed that participants who took notes by handwriting performed better in comprehension test compared to those who took notes using ICT devices

Native-speakerism revisited: Global Englishes, ELT and intercultural communication

The English language functions as a global lingua franca, and as the number of non-native speakers of English surpasses the number of native speakers of English, the ideology of native-speakerism is challenged. Viewing from the paradigm of Global Englishes (GE), English is no longer the sole property of its native speakers. This paper first discusses and presents a general picture regarding standard language ideology and the ideology of native-speakerism, and links the notion to how such ideas would exert an influence on teacher recruitment and intercultural communication in English language teaching (ELT). This paper then employs narrative inquiry from Chinese ELT professionals who have education experience abroad to reveal how they negotiate their professional identities in relation to privilege and marginalization when working with native English speaking colleagues. This paper argues for the importance of moving beyond the idealized native speaker model from the GE paradigm to challenge the ideology of native-speakerism in various aspects of ELT, in particular, in expanding circle contexts

Sign Language Interpreting in English Language Teaching for a Deaf Student: A case study

This paper discusses the case of appropriating a teaching approach as a response to the needs of a Deaf student registering to an English Department of a State University in Depok. The study particularly looks at the sign language interpreting practice in the classroom. In the teaching and learning process, the sign language interpreter has a significant role in transferring the course materials from the lecturer. In other words, the interpreter becomes one important factor for the student's achievement in acquiring the target language. However, there are several challenges faced by the interpreter in delivering the teaching content, such as, speech tempo, the usage of determiners (this, that), the usage of media, classroom preparation, and language differences (English and BISINDO—the natural sign language used by the Deaf community in Indonesia). The aim of this paper is to provide a clear picture concerning 1) sign language interpreting process in English teaching classroom, 2) the coordination of interpreter and lecturer(s), both in classroom preparation as well as teaching process, and 3) challenges experienced by the interpreter. Questionnaire and in-depth interviews are used with the lecturers, the student, and the interpreter in order to elicit as well as acknowledge the data related to the classroom preparation and teaching process. Data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed following interpretive paradigm. The results of this research offer suggestions in sign language interpreting process in English teaching classroom

A text-based learning model for college General English

The fact that an English learning program is provided to equip college students with English skills poses several problems since every university, even every non-English department, likely has its own system. One solution is to provide an acceptable material that is arranged based on the language that needs to be acquired. In order to solve the problem of supporting the English learning process in college, this research aims to produce a learning model for the novice level, i.e. college general English. The general English course is needed to provide the students with college English before academic English. Thus, the problem discussed in this study is what is the acceptable product of the text-based college general English? The researcher employed ADDIE model for the instructional design. The researcher also adopted Borg’s and Gall’s R&D model as the research methodology. The final result was a course book named College Just Ahead. This book consists of five units, which has two or three sub-units in every unit. The result showed that the product was acceptable by the mean score above 4.00 out of 5. Therefore, when it is completed, the course is more transferable. The students and instructors more focus on the process of acquiring an English competence, so that the product is more valid and reliable

CAF: A Collaborative Approach to Providing Feedback

This paper reports findings from a small-scale study on a collaborative technique for providing feedback to student writing, English languages teachers spend a significant amount of their time and effort on providing feedback to students on their writing performances. However, their corrective feedback does not produce desired outcomes. The students either do not pay attention to the comments or they do not learn as much as expected. Research suggests that they generally regard feedback as punitive. and demoralising. One reason for this is that students are not made a part of the feedback process, rather, only its recipients. Based on these premises, a small-scale action research project was conducted in a reputed Australian university. The study employed a collaborative approach, termed here as Collaborative Approach to Feedback (CAF), in which students, rather than their teachers, in small communities, worked together on their writings to provide feedback to each other. CAF, as an educational practice framework, was adopted in this project to involve students actively and collaboratively to provide feedback to other members of their community. Preliminary findings indicate that students felt engaged in and empowered by the process, and that, CAF as a feedback technique exerted positively on the correction of errors in writing. In the pretext of feedback and error correction theory, this paper offers a collaborative feedback framework and a rationale for CAF to be further explored, developed, and adapted