105 research outputs found

    Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives, by Merrill Swain, Penny Kinnear & Linda Steinman (2015, 2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters Textbooks, 192 pages, Paperback £19.95, Hardcover £69.95, ISBN: 978-1-78309-317-5

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    Obra ressenyada: Merril SWAIN, Penny KINNEAR and Linda STEINMAN. Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives. Multilingual Matters Textbooks, 2015.The article reviews the second edition of Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives, by Merril Swain, Penny Kinnear and Linda Steinman, 2015.L'article revisa la segona edició de llibre Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives, per Merril Swain, Penny Kinnear i Linda Steinman, 2015.El artículo revisa la segunda edición de la Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives, por Merril Swain, Penny Kinnear y Linda Steinman, 2015.L'article passe en revue la deuxième édition de Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education: An Introduction through Narratives, par Merril Swain, Penny Kinnear et Linda Steinman 2015

    Teaching in a digital age - Book Review

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    The rapid development of technology has led massive changes in every aspect of our life, one of which is the way we teach in classroom. The volume Teaching in a Digital Age is aimed at providing a base theory and knowledge to teachers and instructors. It also offers alternative classroom procedures that both teachers and instructors could employ to teach their students within a digital environment. The volume is written by A.W. (Tony) Bates, a well-known author, practitioner, and professor in educational media research. It is one of Bates’s extraordinary works on educational technology, online and distance learning; and it has been translated into such languages as French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Serbo-Croat (p. viii). Although the volume was first published in 2015 and specifically does not discuss the incorporation of technology in language learning classroom, the discussion is still relevant to the field as it provides fundamental principles about instructional approaches and methods and the use of technology in both online and offline modes of instruction

    Designing and Evaluating the Use of Smartphones to Facilitate Online Testing in Second-Language Teacher Education (SLTE): An Auto-Ethnographic Study

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    Abstract—This paper reports on an auto-ethnographic study of the use of smartphones to facilitate online testing in the context of second-language teacher education (SLTE). A total of 54 pre-service teachers participated in the study. Preliminary data were collected through observation and written reflection, and additional data were gathered from interviews and students’ web activity logs to enable triangulation. Thematic analysis was carried out on the qualitative data. The findings show that smartphones are a viable electronic tool to facilitate online testing in an SLTE context. More importantly, using Moodle as an online test platform meets both teachers’ and students’ needs with respect to aspects such as design, test structure and online testing activity. The study also highlights some benefits and challenges of employing sequential and multiple- attempt test modes and providing delayed feedback on online tests. The implications of these findings are discussed, with suggestions for further research in the field

    Facilitating Students’ Creativity in an EFL Writing Classroom: Voices from the Field

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    This article documents an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom writing activity to promote students’ creativity. This writing activity had two main objectives: to provide students with writing activities that would promote their practical use of written English language as a means of communication, and to facilitate their creativity in engaging with and solving problems in their social community. A real-world pedagogic writing task was developed to achieve these two objectives. The activity was carried out in a junior secondary school extra-curricular activity with sixteen students from Years 7 and 8. Students’ perceptions of the writing activity were positive, and their awareness of social issues in the community had improved after participating in the activity

    Incorporating a Smartphone Video in a Theatrical Activity to Promote an Authentic Language Learning Environment in a Lower Secondary School Classroom

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    Theatrical activities have been used to promote an authentic learning environment. However, the incorporation of simple daily technology, like smartphones, to enable students to produce a video of their theatrical activities has not been explored in the Indonesian language learning classroom. This paper documents a video project conducted by lower secondary school students at a private school in Jakarta, Indonesia to examine whether a video project task could help create an authentic learning environment in a language classroom setting. Although the benefits of theatrical activities to promote authenticity in students’ learning experiences are evident in the literature, only a few students have access to such benefits. Many students were reluctant to get involved in the theatrical activities prepared by the teachers and only one cohort of students successfully completed the advertisement video assignment. Teachers’ instructional issues as well as students’ motivation and commitment to work collaboratively were identified as the barriers to produce the video

    The use of social media platform to promote authentic learning environment in higher education setting

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    Introduction. This current survey attempts to explore university teachers and students’ perception of using social media to promote an authentic learning environment. Materials and Methods. To this end, 249 university teachers and 329 students participated in the survey where they were asked to compete of 27 items of A Social Media Authentic Learning Environment Inventory (SOMALEVI). Statistical Rasch analyses using Winstep software were performed to evaluate both teachers and students’ responses. Results. Findings of the study showed that participants spent most of their time daily on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, respectively with most access was made from their mobile phones. Most of the participant showed positive views about the use of social media to promote authentic learning environment (Nteachers = 247, 99 %; Nstudents = 309, 93.9 %) while the rests showed their negative perception. The majority of those who perceive positive are female (64.53 %) aged range 21-30 years (32.18 %). Findings also indicate that social media provided opportunities for students to share their experiences and learning activities (MR1, LVI = -0.97), to offer students the opportunity to learn from experts (EP1, LVI = -0.82) so that they were able to obtain a lot of insight on particular issues (EP3, LVI = -0.70). It is interesting, but not surprising that both teachers and students found that social media benefited them with learning resources such as video, demonstration, learning files, allowing students to comprehend the learning materials (EP2, LVI = -0.85). However, the study identified some critical issues regarding the use of social media for authentic learning environment, such as unsuitable real- life representation, difficulty to collaborate with others, and difficulty in recognising their learning potential

    Designing and Evaluating the Use of Smartphones to Facilitate Online Testing in Second-Language Teacher Education (SLTE): An Auto-Ethnographic Study

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    This paper reports on an auto-ethnographic study aiming to identify insights into the practice of using smartphone to facilitate online testing in context of second language teacher education (SLTE). In total of fifty-four pre-service teachers participated in the study. Two methods were employed to collect data, including observation and written-reflection. Additional data gathered from interview and students’ activity logs on the website were also used to triangulate the data collected through the initial methods. A thematic analysis were carried out to analyse the qualitative data. Findings of the study show that smartphone is viable as an electronic tool to facilitate online testing in SLTE context. More importantly, the use of Moodle as an online test platform fits both the teacher and the students’ needs on several aspects such as design, test structure, and online test activity. The study also highlights benefits and challenges of employing sequential and multiple attempt test modes and delayed feedback on online tests. Implications of the findings on the practice of online testing using smartphone in context of SLTE and further research in the field are also discussed

    Digital Assessment Resources in Primary and Secondary School Classrooms Teachers’ Use and Perceptions

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    This short article reports on teachers’ use and perception of digi- tal assessment recourses in primary school classroom. A total of eighteen pri- mary school teachers participated in the study where they were asked to experi- ence of using Kahoot and ZipGrade as digital assessment resources. Self- reflection survey was distributed to the teacher participants to capture their atti- tude and perception about the two applications. Findings revealed that teachers were positive towards the application of two assessment technology in class- room practice. The findings highlighted some factors that encouraged teachers to use Kahoot! and ZipGrade as digital assessment tools including the creation of fun learning environment, practicality, automated scoring and direct feed- back. Despite these benefits, two critical challenges were addressed by teachers when incorporating the digital application at school such as the school context as well as teachers

    Indonesian students' anxiety to write in English as a foreign language across gender and educational levels

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    This survey explored the level and types of anxiety expressed by Indonesia students in writing in English as a foreign language anxiety across gender and educational levels. To this end, 221 foreign language (FL) students from three levels of educations, i.e. lower-secondary school, upper-secondary school and university, were surveyed on voluntary basis where they were asked to complete 22 items of a Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) questionnaire. Two statistical analyses, Rasch Analysis and ANOVA, were performed to examine the quantitative data. The findings showed that all students experienced writing anxiety in FL learning, many experiencing a moderate level of anxiety. Furthermore, students’ writing anxiety was not influenced by gender and educational levels. Indeed, students across all education levels reported experiencing somatic anxiety, avoidance behaviour and cognitive anxiety, with avoidance behaviour being the most common form of anxiety. In conclusion, it is recommended that helping students to develop a positive perception of their FL writing is crucial in addition to helping them develop their writing skills
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