The Central Characteristics of Successful ESL/EFL Teachers

Achieving optimal success in teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires teachers to demonstrate varying essential characteristics that consist of several underlying and interacting constructs. The purpose of this article is to orient the reader and succinctly identify the key variables that lead ESL/EFL teachers to distinctive success. It clearly delineates the characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers embedded within five central dimensions, along with their underlying structures. It also provides common taxonomies of successful EFL teachers’ attributes without burdening the reader with unnecessary detail concerning the many other validated attributes associated with ESL/EFL teachers’ salient attributions of success. To this end, this discussion contributes to a theoretical understanding of the development of successful ESL/EFL teachers and to improved knowledge of the key characteristics of successful ESL/EFL teachers

Continued Concerns with Language Assessment Practices in Saudi Arabian English Education

Language assessment, viewed as a means to help instructors guide learners in effectively and successfully learning a language, plays an important role in the skills, competencies, and overall language-learning outcomes of second-language learners. This conceptual article reviews and synthesizes current language assessment practices and issues in English education in Saudi Arabia. It first highlights the overarching features of existing assessment methods practiced in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia, after which it discusses the factors underpinning those assessment practices and the detrimental effects of such practices on the development of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language. The article concludes by proposing a few pedagogical practices with the potential to change current language assessment practices in English classrooms in Saudi Arabia

Unique Challenges Saudi EFL Learners Face

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is both a promising endeavor and a challenging undertaking. All language learners encounter unique challenges in the process of learning English, and Saudi EFL learners are no exception. This article identifies the unique and multifarious challenges Saudi EFL learners face, and explores the multidimensional causal factors in the progression of the challenges they face most commonly. The analysis first tackles the considerable challenge of accurate spelling, followed by a discussion of the challenges Saudi EFL learners encounter when learning to read and write in English. This discussion addresses challenges in sociolinguistic competence and English pronunciation arising from multivariate factors, and concludes by offering measures to help Saudi EFL learners overcome these characteristic challenges and promote their trajectory toward successful acquisition of EFL

Determinants of Saudi EFL Learners’ Beliefs about Learning EFL

Language learners’ beliefs constitute an individual difference variable that profoundly influences language-learning behavior and significantly contributes to the process and ultimate success of language learning. This article identifies the beliefs Saudi learners hold about learning English as a foreign language (EFL). The analysis first addresses Saudi EFL learners’ perceptions of English, followed by a discussion of Saudi EFL learners’ experiences with learning English. The discussion also addresses these learners’ expectations about studying English and concludes by pinpointing the importance of understanding the distinct language-learning beliefs of Saudi EFL learners and highlighting all factors that could affect these beliefs. Moreover, this conceptual article offers measures and progressive ideas to consider that will help Saudi EFL teachers reinforce more productive and insightful language beliefs that have a facilitative effect on language learning and keep Saudi EFL learners from developing debilitative conceptions of language-learning beliefs. This work also highlights several research directions and pedagogical implications

The effect of multimedia annotation modes on l2 vocabulary acquisition: a comparative study

One aspect of second language teaching via multimedia to have received attention over the past few years is the impact of glossing individual vocabulary words through different modalities. This study examines which of the image modalities--dynamic video or still picture--is more effective in aiding vocabulary acquisition. The participants, 30 ESL students, were introduced to a hypermedia-learning program, designed by the researcher for reading comprehension. The program provides users reading a narrative English text with a variety of glosses or annotations for words in the form of printed text, graphics, video, and sound, all of which are intended to aid in the understanding and learning of unknown words. A within-subject design was used in this study with 30 participants being measured under three conditions: printed text definition alone, printed text definition coupled with still pictures, and printed text definition coupled with video clips. In order to assess the efficacy of each mode, a vocabulary test was designed and administered to participants after they had read the English narrative. Two types of tests were administered: recognition and production. In addition, a face-to-face interview was conducted, and questionnaires were distributed. Results of the both tests were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures. The investigation has yielded the conclusion that a video clip is more effective in teaching unknown vocabulary words than a still picture. Among the suggested factors that explain such a result are that video better builds a mental image, better creates curiosity leading to increased concentration, and embodies an advantageous combination of modalities (vivid or dynamic image, sound, and printed text)

Saudi EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy in Technology-assisted Language Learning (TALL)

This study employs an explanatory, convergent parallel, mixed methods design to investigate the perceived self-efficacy of 145 Saudi teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) when engaging in technology-assisted language learning (TALL). These teachers were evaluated on their technological knowledge on four subdimensions, on their pedagogical technology skills on five subcategories, and on five subdimensions related to their self-perceived ability to integrate TALL into English-language classrooms. The triangulated data were recursively collected in three consecutive phases. Self-efficacy was assessed using data obtained from a 48-item TALL survey and from classroom observations and interviews. Participants completed questionnaires on their self-perceived technological self-efficacy, 13 of whom were observed while teaching and subsequently participated in one-on-one interviews. The data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of means and standard deviations and inferential statistics through one-way repeated-measures analysis of variances (RM ANOVA), along with some statistical tests and Stepwise regression. The data from the observed lessons were subjected to scrupulous and meticulous analysis, and the data from the interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and categorized. The findings culled from the survey, lesson observations, and interviews all revealed that Saudi EFL teachers have low self-efficacy in terms of language-learning technological knowledge, language-learning pedagogical technology skills, and ability to effectively integrate technology into EFL instruction. The implications emerging from this study center on the need to develop EFL teachers’ self-efficacy with technology to ensure that language-related digital tools in EFL instruction are used in the most effective pedagogical manner and to their full potential

The Actuality, Inefficiency, and Needs of EFL Teacher-Preparation Programs in Saudi Arabia

Designing an effective English-teacher-preparation program and the provision of providing ongoing support and professional development opportunities are key compounding factors in preparing knowledgeable and competent English teachers linguistically and pedagogically as well as in facilitating their professional growth throughout their mammoth teaching journeys. This paper presents an in-depth discussion of the current training available to Saudi English teachers and reviews the changes that English-teacher-preparation programs have undergone over the years. Then, a pre-service and in-service teacher-preparation program will be proposed in addition to a continuing professional development program for Saudi EFL teachers. Finally, a number of key issues will be highlighted to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed training program.

Learn with Haptics: Improving Vocabulary Recall with Free-form Digital Annotation on Touchscreen Mobiles

10.1145/3313831.3376272CHI '20: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems1-1