THE USE OF PEER ASSESSMENT AND REFLECTIVE DISCUSSION TO IMPROVE STUDENT PARTICIPATION AND ORAL PRESENTATION PERFORMANCE IN A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION CLASSROOM

21st century classrooms are gearing towards student-centered classrooms where learning is deemed to be more meaningful when students are actively engaged in their learning. In a bid to create more student-centered classrooms, the researcher decided to explore the use of peer assessments and reflective discussions in a Technical Communication classroom as part of an action research to improve student participation and oral presentation performance among thirty 18-year-old diploma students studying in Universiti Tun HusseinOnn Malaysia. The study revealed students in general have a positive perception towards the use of peer assessment and reflective discussion in the classroom. In addition to increased participation and attentiveness in class, improvement in oral presentation performance for the majority of the students (73.3%) was observed. This research shows that with careful planning and scaffolding, positive results can be achieved by employing these two techniques in the teaching and learning process

Teacher beliefs and practices in communicative language competence towards the development of an autonomous learning model

There is great impetus for English courses in institutions of higher learning (II-IL) at present due to its functional importance as a tool for individual and national development, graduate employability and life-long learning. However, it remains a common complaint among employers that Malaysian fresh graduates lack English proficiency and critical thinking skills. Thus, this qualitative study sets out to examine the focus and emphasis on English language proficiency, critical thinking skills and study skills of five (5) English courses offered by Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysta (UTHM) through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. The interviews conducted with five teachers and ten students were transcribed using Transana software before being coded for analysis. A grounded theory approach which emphasises on several stages of data collection and constant comparison of data was employed to interpret the data. The main findings revealed that teachers in general \· think that language proficiency, critical thinking and study skills are important for tertiary level English classrooms. However, actual teaching practices were found to differ from the teachers' beliefs towards critical thinking and study skills due to challenges which can be categorised as teacher factors, student factors and institutional factors. Finally, several important criteria were identified from the findings to form an autonomous learning model for English language communicative competence called the SITE Model. The findings of this study especially the current beliefs and teaching practices of teachers as well as the proposed SITE Model may serve as a reference point for researchers, educators and policy makers to develop effective English language curriculums for enhancing communicative competence among learners

Learner Autonomy in University English Classrooms: Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

While much has been written on the concept and development of learner autonomy, limited studies have investigated the perceptions and classroom practices of teachers in fostering learner autonomy. This paper sets out to examine what teachers think about learner autonomy as well as the strategies they use to develop autonomous learners in a university setting using a qualitative approach. Five English teachers were selected using purposive sampling and a semi-structured interview was conducted with each of them to obtain in-depth data on their perceptions and teaching practices revolving around autonomous learning. The findings revealed that although university teachers possessed a fair understanding of what learner autonomy involves, there was a lack of focus in terms of developing learner autonomy in the classroom due to a number of challenges such as lack of teacher readiness, passive student attitude as well as the relevance and timing of English courses within the university curriculum

Learner Autonomy in University English Classrooms: Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

While much has been written on the concept and development of learner autonomy, limited studies have investigated the perceptions and classroom practices of teachers in fostering learner autonomy. This paper sets out to examine what teachers think about learner autonomy as well as the strategies they use to develop autonomous learners in a university setting using a qualitative approach. Five English teachers were selected using purposive sampling and a semi-structured interview was conducted with each of them to obtain in-depth data on their perceptions and teaching practices revolving around autonomous learning. The findings revealed that although university teachers possessed a fair understanding of what learner autonomy involves, there was a lack of focus in terms of developing learner autonomy in the classroom due to a number of challenges such as lack of teacher readiness, passive student attitude as well as the relevance and timing of English courses within the university curriculum.

Oral corrective feedback: students’ responses to different types of prompting

Corrective feedback (CF) is seen as an inseparable part of second language learning and can generally be divided into written or oral CF. This paper focuses on investigating one type of oral CF which is prompting. This study examines types of prompts used by instructors and how students react to different types of prompting within a context of assessing students’ speaking skills. A qualitative case study design involving 15 thirteen-year-old students and three English language instructors was conducted. Students were given an oral picture-description task and prompted by the instructors during each of the oral sessions. All 15 oral sessions were videotaped and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to categorize students’ responses towards each type of prompt. The findings suggest that the use of clarification requests (implicit CF) are useful in triggering more ideas and facilitating students’ fluency in delivering ideas, compared to elicitation (explicit CF)