Teachers’ Perception of Parental Involvement of Primary Students: A Case Study in EYL Context

Parental involvement of primary students is essential since it can contribute on their educational outcomes and development. Especially for learning English as a foreign language, parents play the prime source in developing their engagement and responsibility to have positive academic achievement in their early development. As well as their teachers, parents need to connect with school activities and be responsible in providing services to the children in education delivery. In this study, teachers’ perception of parental involvement in the process of learning English of primary students was investigated.  It focuses on analyzing perception of three elementary school teachers who had experience in teaching English for more than 15 years. Data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun Clarke, 2006). Descriptive case study was used as the research design because of the phenomenon that occurs in the involvement of parents in learning English to primary students. The results of this study involve three major themes. They are; 1) students' language development 2) teachers feeling, and 3) cooperation carried out by teachers and parents. As a conclusion, relationship between parents and teachers can have a positive impact. It opens valuable opportunities for children to develop language skills (especially English), and allows brilliant English achievements

EFL Students’ Perceptions in Using Instagram in English Language Learning

In teaching-learning, teachers can use many instructional media, especially Instagram. Instagram as social media has influenced society, especially for high school students. This research investigates high school students' perceptions of using Instagram in English language learning. This research used a mixed-method sequential explanatory design with a close-ended web survey questionnaire given to 77 students from the 10th grade until 12th grade in two senior high schools in Gresik, East Java which implement social media in their teaching and learning activities. An interview is also needed to know the students' perception concerning the impact of using Instagram in language learning. The results showed that the students perceive Instagram as a tool for senior high school students to learn English and impact the learners to utilize the features in Instagram for a better cause in learning English. Instagram offers many opportunities for teachers and students since it has plenty of features to use, especially during online learning, making it easier and helpful to connect. In addition, Instagram can motivate the students to learn English from their peers and develop their English skills. By seeing the students' perspectives through the data results, Instagram is a good tool for learning English and connecting teachers and students during a pandemic

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS ENGLISH TEACHING IN BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT

Euis Nurul Aeni. 14111320094. SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS ENGLISH TEACHING IN BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT Teaching English as a foreign language puts the teachers into crucial aspect since it gives an extra challenge with the existence of Sundanesse and Bahasa Indonesia. In other hand, their perception influences the way they perceive English teaching. So, this research is intended primarily to explore senior high school teachers’ perception towards English teaching in bilingual and multilingual context specifically at SMAN 2 Majalengka. This study is aimed to investigate their perception in three point of views; linguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. As a result, the study is positioned into a qualitative research. Furthermore, the qualitative study is conducted to observe their perception through interview, questionnaire, and classroom observation. The researcher conducts interview, classroom observation and member checking as questionnaire to collect the data. Here, data taken from English teachers at SMAN 2 Majalengka as the source will be analyzed, interpreted and represented descriptively. In addition, the finding shows that English teachers perceive that learners’ mother tongue has a great role in English teaching even though sometimes in may cause harmful for learners’ development. However, the use of L1 which is contributive has been agreed. As consequences, English classroom instruction combines the use of English as target language and learners’ mother tongue whether it is Sundanesse or Bahasa Indonesia. Moreover, the finding also presents that FLA is believed for being a tool for learners to learn English even though the English teachers argue that foreign language learning can be started as early as possible to maximize learners’ golden age. Additionally, the teachers believe that learners’ background knowledge is contributive to English teaching and learning as a tool to connect information exists in learners’ mind and new information from classroom. Correspondingly, classroom observation shows the use of prior knowledge in various terms to explain the content of teaching. The last, the English teachers at SMAN 2 Majalengka argue that learners’ culture and identity can be involved in classroom setting since it reflects who learners are and where learners’ come from. In this regard, majority learners are Sundanesse so that the difference among learners’ background does not seems to influence much in English teaching and learning. Furthermore, the switching among languages in classroom activities is used for many reasons which is applied mostly for message repetition and qualification. Key words : English teachers, perception, bi- and multilingual, linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic

Personality, Category, and Cross-Linguistic Speech Sound Processing: A Connectivistic View

Category formation of human perception is a vital part of cognitive ability. The disciplines of neuroscience and linguistics, however, seldom mention it in the marrying of the two. The present study reviews the neurological view of language acquisition as normalization of incoming speech signal, and attempts to suggest how speech sound category formation may connect personality with second language speech perception. Through a questionnaire, (being thick or thin) ego boundary, a correlate found to be related to category formation, was proven a positive indicator of personality types. Following the qualitative study, thick boundary and thin boundary English learners native in Cantonese were given a speech-signal perception test using an ABX discrimination task protocol. Results showed that thick-boundary learners performed significantly lower in accuracy rate than thin-boundary learners. It was implied that differences in personality do have an impact on language learning

Diagnosing Participant Number with Syntactic Bootstrapping

This presentation explores research on event perception and syntactic bootstrapping, discussing how infants connect their understanding of events to language. When hearing sentences, some argue that infants match the number of arguments in the sentence to the number of participants in the event they are observing, but others believe that instead, they connect structural positions in the syntax to thematic roles. To further investigate this, infants were presented with a word-learning task to see if they could learn a novel verb in a two-argument sentence that corresponded to a three-participant event. Currently, research results support thematic linking more than participant argument matching, providing evidence that children possess rich syntactic representations from a young age.Project on Children's Language Learnin

Personality, Category, and Cross-Linguistic Speech Sound Processing: A Connectivistic View

Category formation of human perception is a vital part of cognitive ability. The disciplines of neuroscience and linguistics, however, seldom mention it in the marrying of the two. The present study reviews the neurological view of language acquisition as normalization of incoming speech signal, and attempts to suggest how speech sound category formation may connect personality with second language speech perception. Through a questionnaire, (being thick or thin) ego boundary, a correlate found to be related to category formation, was proven a positive indicator of personality types. Following the qualitative study, thick boundary and thin boundary English learners native in Cantonese were given a speech-signal perception test using an ABX discrimination task protocol. Results showed that thick-boundary learners performed significantly lower in accuracy rate than thin-boundary learners. It was implied that differences in personality do have an impact on language learning

Neural Mechanisms for Information Compression by Multiple Alignment, Unification and Search

This article describes how an abstract framework for perception and cognition may be realised in terms of neural mechanisms and neural processing. This framework — called information compression by multiple alignment, unification and search (ICMAUS) — has been developed in previous research as a generalized model of any system for processing information, either natural or artificial. It has a range of applications including the analysis and production of natural language, unsupervised inductive learning, recognition of objects and patterns, probabilistic reasoning, and others. The proposals in this article may be seen as an extension and development of Hebb’s (1949) concept of a ‘cell assembly’. The article describes how the concept of ‘pattern’ in the ICMAUS framework may be mapped onto a version of the cell assembly concept and the way in which neural mechanisms may achieve the effect of ‘multiple alignment’ in the ICMAUS framework. By contrast with the Hebbian concept of a cell assembly, it is proposed here that any one neuron can belong in one assembly and only one assembly. A key feature of present proposals, which is not part of the Hebbian concept, is that any cell assembly may contain ‘references’ or ‘codes’ that serve to identify one or more other cell assemblies. This mechanism allows information to be stored in a compressed form, it provides a robust mechanism by which assemblies may be connected to form hierarchies and other kinds of structure, it means that assemblies can express abstract concepts, and it provides solutions to some of the other problems associated with cell assemblies. Drawing on insights derived from the ICMAUS framework, the article also describes how learning may be achieved with neural mechanisms. This concept of learning is significantly different from the Hebbian concept and appears to provide a better account of what we know about human learning

ATNoSFERES revisited

ATNoSFERES is a Pittsburgh style Learning Classifier System (LCS) in which the rules are represented as edges of an Augmented Transition Network. Genotypes are strings of tokens of a stack-based language, whose execution builds the labeled graph. The original ATNoSFERES, using a bitstring to represent the language tokens, has been favorably compared in previous work to several Michigan style LCSs architectures in the context of Non Markov problems. Several modifications of ATNoSFERES are proposed here: the most important one conceptually being a representational change: each token is now represented by an integer, hence the genotype is a string of integers; several other modifications of the underlying grammar language are also proposed. The resulting ATNoSFERES-II is validated on several standard animat Non Markov problems, on which it outperforms all previously published results in the LCS literature. The reasons for these improvement are carefully analyzed, and some assumptions are proposed on the underlying mechanisms in order to explain these good results

Contours of Inclusion: Inclusive Arts Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this publication is to share models and case examples of the process of inclusive arts curriculum design and evaluation. The first section explains the conceptual and curriculum frameworks that were used in the analysis and generation of the featured case studies (i.e. Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Design for Learning). Data for the cases studies was collected from three urban sites (i.e. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston) and included participant observations, student and teacher interviews, curriculum documentation, digital documentation of student learning, and transcripts from discussion forum and teleconference discussions from a professional learning community.The initial case studies by Glass and Barnum use the curricular frameworks to analyze and understand what inclusive practices look like in two case studies of arts-in-education programs that included students with disabilities. The second set of precedent case studies by Kronenberg and Blair, and Jenkins and Agois Hurel uses the frameworks to explain their process of including students by providing flexible arts learning options to support student learning of content standards. Both sets of case studies illuminate curricular design decisions and instructional strategies that supported the active engagement and learning of students with disabilities in educational settings shared with their peers. The second set of cases also illustrate the reflective process of using frameworks like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to guide curricular design, responsive instructional differentiation, and the use of the arts as a rich, meaningful, and engaging option to support learning. Appended are curriculum design and evaluation tools. (Individual chapters contain references.

Qualities of effective teachers who teach disadvantaged students: insights from the Varkey Teacher Ambassador Community

The goal of providing equitable quality education for every child will only be achieved if all children have access to a quality teacher. A shortage of effective teachers disproportionately affects children from poor and marginalized backgrounds. This study investigates the qualities, mindsets and behaviours of effective teachers who work with disadvantaged children using the Varkey Teacher Ambassador community. Our hope is that the findings from this study will inform policy makers across the globe and lead to improved policies to attract, develop, and retain effective teachers to serve the most disadvantaged students