Learner Involvement in Language Development: From Course Design to Performance Assessment

This study looks into three outstanding EFL teachers’ classrooms in a Taiwan university setting using teachers’ syllabi, questionnaire surveys, interviews with students and teachers, and evidence of students’ improvements in English proficiency. The teaching methods have proven to be effective in achieving results and are appreciated by the teachers’ students. Their teaching methods adopted in the classrooms were analyzed and identified. A paired t-test was used to examine the students’ improvement between a pre-MEPT proficiency test and a post-MEPT proficiency test. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gain insight into the students’ perceptions of learning experiences. The teachers were also observed and interviewed about what methods and how they utilized to help students learn. The study found that (1) classroom teaching is not attributed to a single superior method; (2) cooperative learning techniques of Communicative Language Teaching and Cooperative Learning methods combined with traditional Grammar-Translation teaching instruction worked effectively for university students; learning tends to take place when students are willing to actively participate in learning activities which might be something new or challenging to them; (3) the paired t-tests proved that the students of all three teachers made statistically significant improvement in overall performance over students in the Freshman English classes.

The article demonstrates how the emergence and development of new methods of language teaching at school and university are related to new trends in linguistics, psychology and pedagogy. The problems that domestic and foreign methodologists face in the process of finding the most effective ways and methods of teaching are highlighted. In the article also were analyzed different points of view on understanding the psychological features of language acquisition, and in particular the principle of consciousness leading to the emergence of different teaching methods. The analysis of modern methods of teaching a foreign language, which pay attention to the psycholinguistic nature of the language, is made. Identified advantages and disadvantages.

Even in our modern schools, it is not unusual to Dnd teach- ers whose practice is shaped primarily from their past experiences. In the traditional language teaching methods, teachers offer course materials in a classroom where students listen, take notes, copy ma- terials, execute homework and complete assignments. In many cases lecturers fail to transfer knowledge to students effectively despite personally having sound technical knowledge in the subject area. However, the challenge that faces the education environment has always been to ensure that the teaching and learning process takes place effectively in a classroom environment. This paper focuses on the author s experiences in implementing an active method in Ara- bic language teaching to promote effective student learning. It ex- plores speciDc pedagogical theories combined with school resources to improve the quality of teaching and student learning. A simpli- Ded educational method for improving the quality of the teaching and learning process is presented. The method called “Teratai sug- gested that the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process is depend on the effective facilitation of communication, involvement and interaction among students, teachers and course content. The article is intended to explore episthemological consepts, assump- tions, approaches, constructions, and applications of Teratai method in Arabic language teaching. The purpose of this discussion is to build the awareness of a variety of effective teaching ideas and tech- niques that a lecturer may consider in light of their current teaching styles and personalities. Key words: Teratai Method, language learning methodology, epis- themological study

With the progress and development of society and the continuous advancement of curriculum standard reform, society has higher requirements for students’ English skills. The junior high school stage is the best time to cultivate students’ communication skills, however, junior high school English classes are currently still based on traditional teaching as the main teaching method, which only focuses on cultivating students’ reading and writing skills, thus neglecting the training of listening and speaking skills. Despite its evident benefits, the implementation of the task-based language teaching (TBLT) method in junior high school English communication classes is not without challenges. The current state of these classes reveals a significant gap in the integration of communicative tasks into the teaching process. This gap stems from a variety of factors, including the lack of appropriate resources, insufficient teacher training, and the deeply ingrained reliance on traditional teaching methods. This study will briefly explain the definition and characteristics of the task-based language teaching method, analyze the current situation of junior high school English communication classes, the difficulties of using TBLT in junior high school English classrooms, and the application methods of task-based teaching methods. The teaching method makes up for the shortcomings of English communication classes in junior high schools and improves the quality of teaching.

The study researched on the problems that the communicative language teachers face in teaching a second language. The communicative language teaching is one of the most effective teaching methods in language teaching which has its own challenges from the teachers’ point of view. The communicative language teaching helps in a acquiring the native proficiency and accent. It improved on all four skill including reading, listening, speaking and writing. Consequently, it requires an effective curriculum and the effective content to be utilized in the classroom to promote interactive learning. The CL teachers may have problem in achieving high performance from the CLT if the learners are less interested or they are not enjoying the communication process. The teachers also face an issue when the learners are not using the target language because practicing the target language is very important to succeed in the target language. The practical implementation of the designed content and curriculum becomes one of the challenges for the teachers of the communicative language teaching.

INTRODUCTION The two papers in this section reexamine the notion of methods of teaching and offer complementary perspectives on how the nature of teaching can be understood. Although for much of the twentieth century a primary concern of the language teaching profession was to find more effective methods of language teaching, by the twenty-first century there has been a movement away from a preoccupation with generic teaching methods toward a more complex view of language teaching which encompasses a multifaceted understanding of the teaching and learning processes. Brown traces this movement from a preoccupation with “methods” to a focus on “pedagogy.” The notion of teaching methods has had a long history in language teaching, as is witnessed by the rise and fall of a variety of methods throughout the recent history of language teaching. Some, such as Audiolingualism, became the orthodox teaching methods of the 1970s in many parts of the world. Other guru-led methods such as the Silent Way attracted small but devoted followers in the 1980s and beyond, but attract little attention today. Many teachers have found the notion of methods attractive over the last one hundred or so years, since they offer apparently foolproof systems for classroom instruction and are hence sometimes embraced enthusiastically as a panacea for the “language teaching problem.” The 1970s and 1980s were perhaps the years of greatest enthusiasm for methods.

Notwithstanding the past belief, recently there have been some attempts by scholars who encourage the incorporation of literature in language classes. In other words, literature has been discovered as a valuable and interesting material for improving students’ language ability. There exists a variety of language teaching methods that all receive conspicuous criticisms by scholarsthough there are still at workbut there is not yet a language teaching method solely based on literature as the authentic material. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, it accentuates the importance and benefits of using literatureshort story in particularin language teaching and second, considering the importance of continuous progress and innovation in language teaching methods on one hand and the advantages of using short stories in language classes, a new language teaching methods as Short Story based Language Teaching (SSBLT) is introduced here. SSBLT is a humanistic literature-based language teaching method that aims to promote the learners` personal, cultural and linguistic awareness. Its main purpose is to help learners to learn language by enjoying and help them use language for communication through using short stories as the materials in a friendly atmosphere. It is particularly designed to develop communicative competence and critical thinking. In the end, the paper discusses the teaching procedures and advantages of SSBLT. Keyword: Short story based language teaching (SSBLT), literature-based method, Communicative competence, critical thinking.

The implementation of the Department of Education’s Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL) marked the beginnings of the nationwide institutionalization of a range of foreign languages (FL) in the Philippines, stimulating new sites of inquiry for the field of critical language studies. Many of the languages offered under the SPFL do not share the historical and social grounding of the country’s official languages. However, they find common ground with English in the extant colonial framings of language teaching and learning, which have often impeded local agency in structuring or reimagining encounters with the “foreign.” As such, this paper aims to explore decolonial approaches to issues that have emerged alongside the promotion and teaching of foreign language classes across all levels of education in the Philippines by drawing inspiration from the decoloniality movement in Latin America and related efforts to de-center knowledge and digress from extant canons. First, it problematizes the implicit reinforcement of the one-nation one-language habitus, paying particular attention to assumptions that guide foreign language policies, materials, and teaching methods that reinforce global linguistic hierarchies and assumptions in favor of “competitiveness.” Second, considerations for alternative foreign language teaching approaches and materials are put forward, factoring in the Philippines’ sociolinguistic and historical features that have guided its framing of the “foreign,” as well as extant challenges in promoting intercultural reflection in an increasingly neoliberal educational setting. Challenges in integrating a decolonial perspective in institutional conceptualizations and policies on foreign language teaching in the Philippines conclude this paper to stimulate reflection on how language teaching may offer opportunities to rethink our relationship to language and interlingual/intercultural encounters.

This research investigated students’ perceptions of tutors’ teaching methods applied in one of grammar tutoring classes in an English Education study program at one of the universities in Yogyakarta. The students’ preferences on grammar teaching methods were also discovered. This research employed a quantitative approach. Fifty-seven students participated in this study and filled out the questionnaire. Their activities during tutoring program were observed. Then, the interview was used to gather further information. The result of the questionnaire revealed a mean score of four point twenty-nine. It showed that the participants of this study shared their positive perceptions of tutors’ teaching methods in grammar tutoring classes. They felt that the tutors were able to build a comfortable learning experience and motivate them to have a language exposure. Additionally, the students desired to learn grammar by using the audio-lingual method and communicative language teaching (CLT) method. This study implies the need for a well-prepared peer tutoring program to help students effectively. Additionally, the administrators can address individual learning differences and provide insights for improving grammar instructions.

هدف البحث إلى التعرف إلى أسباب عدم استخدم طلاب الدراسات العليا في تخصص مناهج وطرق تدريس اللغة العربية في جامعة أم القرى طريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة، واتبع البحث منهج دراسة الحالة من خلال أسلوب التصميم الاستكشافي، وتكونت العينة من 6 طلاب دراسات عُليا، وجُمعت البيانات من خلال مقابلات شبه مقننة. وحُلّلت البيانات بطريقة التحليل الموضوعي من خلال أسلوب الاستقراء. وقد أسفرت النتائج أن سبب عدم استخدام طلاب الدراسات العليا في تخصص مناهج وطرق تدريس اللغة العربية في جامعة أم القرى طريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة هو ضعف معرفتهم بطريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة، وقد يكون سبب ذلك قلة إسهام برنامجي الدراسات العليا في تعريفهم بها، بالإضافة إلى عدم شيوع طريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة في أبحاث تعليم اللغة العربية وتعلّمها. وقدّم البحث عددًا من التوصيات والمقترحات في ضوء نتائج البحث.الكلمات المفتاحية: طريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة - مراجعة الأدبيات السابقة - أبحاث تعليم اللغة العربية وتعلّمهاالكلمات المفتاحية: طريقة المراجعة المنهجية للأدبيات السابقة - مراجعة الأدبيات السابقة - أبحاث تعليم اللغة العربية وتعلّمها

Nowadays foreign language is not just a part of nation's culture, it is also the guarantee of student’s successful career in the future. The achievement of high level proficiency of foreign language is not possible without fundamental language training in higher education institution. Most of them in our country provide students with at least two or even three foreign languages. In the context of higher school reforming, important changes in the educational technologies of foreign language teaching are envisaged. Modern language education is also gradually being modernized, introducing a modular rating system for teaching foreign languages. Interdisciplinary integration, democratization and economization of education determine the manifestation of innovative components in the teaching of the foreign languages. All this requires the formulation of the new claims for teaching and a foreign language teacher in the Free Economic Zone. At the current stage of society development, the purpose of foreign language teaching in higher education institutions is students' mastering of communicative competencies that will allow them to implement their knowledge, skills and abilities to solve specific communicative tasks in real life situations. The introduction of the new effective methods of foreign language teaching in the process of preparing students of humanities and technical specialties has become not only desirable but also necessary. Innovative orientation requires teachers to master and apply the pedagogical innovations, as well as stimulate the search for new forms and methods of educational process organization. High-quality language training of students is impossible without the use of modern educational technologies. The most effective are the professionally-oriented foreign language learning, the project work in teaching, the application of information and telecommunication technologies, the work with educational computer programs in foreign languages (multimedia system), the distance technologies in foreign language learning, the use of Internet resources, the foreign language teaching in the computer environment (forums, blogs, e-mail, etc.). Nowadays, the methodology of the use of computer programs is being developed actively getting more used. Computer programs offer ample opportunities to improve the process of foreign language learning, increasing its efficiency. The computer program provides the perception of information through auditory and visual channels, so it also allows you to organize teaching and control the foreign language acquisition in different modes of independent search and at different levels of complexity. Foreign language teaching means are important to ensure the full and effective organization of students' learning in the classroom to master foreign language activities.

Most of the innovations in teaching method in language teaching are made to make learning pleasurable exercise. For learning to take place, the positive attribute of the teacher, the learner, the textbook and the classroom must interact. The age group of the learners: the beginners, the intermediates and the advanced must be paramount. Constraints that mediate against the flow of learning from the part of the teacher, the learner and the classroom must be noted. Learning is a by-product of teaching and the beneficiaries are the learners. Learners assimilate the language instruction from the teacher by a conscious and a deliberate effort over a time. The work targets at the threepatide levels of group of people in the school. The beginners, the intermediate and the advanced levels in the school system. Language teaching is like every other commercial enterprise or business. It is commercial because the livelihood of the practitioners depend on it. The economic futures of the learner also depend on it. For instance, a credit pass in English language is a passport for employment and recruitment as trainees both in the private and public sector of the economy. It’s a measure for a university admission.

The paper deals with the speaking methods in the Croatian language teaching. First part deals with methods and their classification at the theoretical level. The monologic and dialogic teaching methods are emphasized, focusing on the method of oral presentation as a monologic teaching method and the types of teaching conversations as the dialogic teaching methods. The purpose of this paper is to explore the representation of speaking methods in the Croatian language teaching. We approach to this issue from the points of teaching and learning, and the continuity of two factors – teachers and students. Regarding this, the representation of the teacher’s speaking methods are explored – the dominance of teaching and the teacher’s role (reduced learning) and the representation of the students' speaking methods – the dominance of learning and the student’s role (significant learning). The aim is to determine the incidence of the speaking methods in teaching and learning of the Croatian language and to examine the prevailance of either the teacher’s or the student’s speaking methods. The research results based on the recordings of 30 hours of teaching practice showed that in the Croatian language teaching the representation of the teacher’s speaking methods, especially dialogical methods, is prevailing.

In response to the European Union’s call for the promotion of linguistic diversity and multilingualism among its member states at various levels, the Teacher Training College at the Universidad de Extremadura in Spain launched a bilingual track in its primary education degree. The track has four main goals: Increasing graduates’ English language proficiency and knowledge of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching methods and techniques, fostering intercultural communication, and augmenting the internationalization of the program. Save the first one, these are also the goals of the Bilingual Authorization and the M.A. in Bilingual Education at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Despite noticeable differences in their respective courses of study, student bodies, and graduates’ future job opportunities, existing similarities between the programs encouraged the authors to conduct a comparative study of their main components: Background, goals, curricula, and requirements for graduation, while granting special consideration to necessary variations in design and implementation. The findings of the study may benefit the global educational community in the field of bilingual teacher preparation by contributing to a better understanding of similarities and range of variations across programs sharing similar goals, despite their implementation in distant locations.

The method of Text-based Language Teaching centers on texts, which can present diverse forms and highlight authentic texts, so it is frequently used as the guidance for language teaching for EFL learners. However, many teachers fail to effectively employ this method in the practical classroom. Hence, this paper aims to explore how to implement effective teaching of “Simile” in a lesson for one specific group of EFL learners in the classroom based on the method of Text-based Language Teaching. Apart from language features in two authentic written texts, the appropriateness and interestingness of both texts for EFL learners will be mainly investigated. It can be concluded that both chosen texts in this lesson possess theoretical rationale and practical value for EFL learners, thus effectively realizing the research purpose to a large extent. Although Text-based Language Teaching seems to be traditional, teachers should select some proper and interesting texts and apply them into teaching in a productive and innovative way. More importantly, this method combined with other useful teaching methods can work more effectively.