5 research outputs found
Principals’ Leadership Styles and Strategies Employed to Motivate Teachers in Ronaki Hawler Educational Institutions, Erbil, Iraq
Effective management is one of the determining factors that play a critical role in teacher
motivation. It is also the main factor behind a successful educational institution. Moreover, effective
management is necessary to motivate people into action and propel an institution to reach its established
objectives. In an educational institution, where managerial structure fails to function well, teachers
obviously lose their motivation to teach as well as their commitment to the organization. Therefore,
administrators’ leadership styles can affect teacher motivation which will eventually affect learners’
performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the administrators’ leadership styles, their
awareness of teacher motivation peculiarities and strategies they use to motivate the teaching staff at Ronaki
Educational Institutions in Erbil, Iraq. It further aims to investigate what makes an effective administrator.
To achieve the research goal, the study firstly uses the theoretical analysis of the scientific and
methodological literature on the research problem and makes use of a semi-structured interview with
Ronaki Hawler Educational Institutions’ administrators. In the interview with 24 administrators, the
information on organizational practices and their frequencies, employed by administrators, was obtained. It
included elements such as; whether/how often advancement opportunities, promotion, autonomy, bonuses
were granted to the teaching staff, what sort of responsibility they possessed, how their recognition as
teachers was expressed, and how secure they felt their jobs were. The findings were analyzed and discussed
in the discussion part of this research study
Pragmatic Competence as an Integral Part of EFL Teaching
In many recent studies teachers and other professional educators in EFL circles highlight the
importance of teaching pragmatic competence as a vital part of language teaching curriculum. This
probably was the result of generations of learners of English language who completed their studies in the
foreign language with a relatively good general language proficiency but weaker skills to interpret the
messages and intentions that are conveyed in conversations, correctly. This particular competence is
referred to as pragmatic competence. This paper aims to overview most widely used techniques to teach
pragmatic competence in an EFL classroom as well as provide theoretical background for the concept and
closely related notions such as speech acts and politeness strategies
Classroom Management and School Science Labs: A Review of Literature on Classroom Management Strategies
Effective learning refers to the extent to which educational institutions are effective in achieving
their educational objectives. Effective teaching/learning cannot simply happen in a classroom where
teachers fail to manage classrooms effectively. Therefore, classroom management happens in a positive
classroom environment where positive teacher-student rapport is established. As for science laboratory,
learning in the labs has been long considered as a crucial part of science education. Effective management
strategies not only in the classrooms, but also in science labs support and enhance effective teaching and
learning. Classroom management in science labs is a standout amongst the most central roles played by
teachers because it determines the achievements of students. Effective science teachers are the ones who
understand the peculiarities of students’ behavior in science labs and use preventive and reactive classroom
management strategies to prevent or react to problem behavior of students. Emphasizing the knowledge and
the practice of classroom management strategies, this study will illuminate effective techniques for
management in the classrooms and consider this from the perspective of teacher effectiveness, particularly
in science labs, and consequently suggest some implications for practice
Assessment of EFL learners’ Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Competence and Performance
Communicative competence has been a fundamental issue for foreign/second language teaching methodology and a cornerstone of language classrooms for about four decades. Its two essential components - sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences, though ubiquitously acknowledged as crucial for language teaching/learning, are not adequately, according to modern methodological requirements, taught and learned. The present article aimed to succinctly review the main aspects of the two competences as presented by linguists and educators, to draw a line between language performance and competence, to revisit the major forms of testing and assessing language learners’ sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences, corresponding performance and oral proficiency. It was intended to test sociolinguistic and pragmatic knowledge and performance of L2 learners; to assess the learners’ overall oral proficiency in the target language and to compare the results of the two above procedures. The aim of the undertaking was to define what relationship exists between the three tested and assessed phenomena, i.e., whether or not acquiring the competence in the target language entails performance and enhances learners’ fluency. Implementing all the tasks scheduled enabled the researcher to elicit the necessary data and to draw conclusions concerning the interdependence between language competence and performance/proficiency; to suggest recommendations for refinement of L2 learner evaluation practice, for improving language programs in terms of teaching/ learning communicative competence and its components and for better understanding of cognitive processes which take place in L2 learners when dealing with performance and competence in the target language
Teaching sociolinguistic competence in an EFL classroom.
In order to be considered fully proficient in the target language, an EFL learner needs to acquire the cultural aspect of the language as well, that is sociolinguistic competence. Otherwise, learners will be able to produce sentences that are grammatically correct but sound awkward, unnatural and inappropriate. Sociolinguistic competence is one of the main components of the broader concept of communicative competence and is directly relevant to foreign language teaching. This paper overviews some of the methods for teaching it to EFL learners