Background: The Nigerian English language curriculum for writing mostly encourages a teacher-centred approach whereby the teacher simply gives writing task to students and leave them to figure it out on their own. This leaves many of the students stuck and thereby losing interest in English composition. Objective: This study hereby investigates how Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) impacts the writing performance of secondary school students in Nigeria to see if a more student-centered approach might change the students’ perspective and performance. The study specifically focuses on organization and structure in expository writing. It primarily aims to determine whether using a student-centred approach like IBL can improve students’ writing performance. Methods: A seven-week experimental study was conducted, and this involved an experimental group that was taught using IBL strategies and a control group that received traditional instruction. At the beginning of the study, each group consisted of 20 students, making the initial sample size 40. However, only 10 students from each group completed both the pre-test and post-test, which resulted in 20 valid responses. This reduction was largely because of the students’ motivation and attitudes toward the process, which affected their participation. Data collection included pre-tests and post-tests to assess students’ writing performance. Findings: The results of the experiment underscore that no significant differences were observed between the performance of the experimental and control group. While IBL did not lead to measurable improvements in students’ ability to organize and structure expository essays, the study highlights the value of active student engagement in the learning process. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the results may differ with a larger sample size and a longer period of intervention.

Background: During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, many academics and researchers in English Language Teaching (ELT) have studied a variety of issues faced in various types of online teaching and learning, including examining the efficacy of the Blended Learning (BL) approach as a result of the emergency remote and fully online learning or e-learning in response to the learning-from-home policy. Nevertheless, the researchers discovered that only a few studies employed a narrative inquiry method to explore students' perspectives, stories, and voices relating to their ways of learning during and after the pandemic. Objective: This study helped the researchers better understand the challenges students faced and the adjustments they made, providing unique insights that other methods might miss. Methods: This study addresses that gap by examining the stories and views of nine EFL students from three Indonesian universities who experienced various learning modes during and after the pandemic, including face-to-face, fully online, and blended classes. The students were requested to share their experiences and viewpoints about the BL approach through open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The methods and tools from the narrative analysis were then employed to analyze the gathered stories and responses. Findings: The findings indicate that while most students supported BL using appropriate online tools, their understanding of the approach varied, emphasizing the need for specific conditions for its successful implementation. Conclusion: This study contributes to the understanding of the approach variations of BL.

Writing skills are crucial in education, yet many students face challenges with engagement and interest. Given the increasing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education, exploring innovative approaches to address these issues is important. This study investigated ICT-based interactive video to enhance students' engagement and descriptive writing skills. Conducted with 33 seventh-grade students from a junior high school in Malang, this qualitative study employed classroom observations and analysis of written texts. Data analysis involved categorizing observation records by themes such as student engagement and interaction with the video. Students’ descriptive texts were examined for advancements in clarity, coherence, and creativity and categorized based on these aspects. The findings indicated that after using interactive videos, students’ descriptive writing displayed advancements in the three areas examined, with many students achieving high-quality levels. These results suggest that interactive videos can be a valuable tool for boosting students’ engagement and writing skills. The study highlights the need for incorporating such media into writing instruction. It suggests that further research should explore the refinement of these tools and their application in varied educational settings.

Implementing the Collaborative Canva Storyboard will equip the students with integrated skills. However, some people have not recognized Collaborative Canva Storyboard as a way to improve students’ engagement in classroom activities. This study explores a lecturer's experiences and challenges in using Collaborative Canva Storyboard and identifies how Collaborative Canva Storyboard would be implemented to enhance university students' engagement and integrate 4Cs skills. Under the design of action research, the study was conducted in four stages: reconnaissance, planning, action and observation, and reflection. The study involved 45 undergraduate students in an Accounting Education Department taking English classes in their first semester. Based on the results of students' interviews and students' work, the use of Collaborative Canva Storyboard can be a means to improve students’ engagement. In addition, the study found that Collaborative Canva Storyboards were beneficial for building up students’ communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

This study aims to understand the English learning process using Arloopa as a digital medium. This study uses a descriptive qualitative design. To answer the problem of the study, the researcher observed the learning and teaching process in an Islamic secondary school in Malang. Two classes were observed by immersion in the classroom to get data. To verify the data obtained, the researcher checked the learning module document. The researcher revealed that using Arloopa as a digital learning media requires additional skill technology for the teacher if the students need to be equipped with a mobile phone, which Arloopa is only working with a mobile phone. The teacher should connect the mobile phone’s display to the LCD projector so that the students can view an object displayed by Arloopa. It would be different if each student in the class utilized an Android phone.

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, online formative assessment has grown in English Language Teaching. Previous researchers strongly contended that the accurate usage of online formative assessment could remarkably substantiate EFL learners’ target language learning motivation, achievements, and outcomes. This present qualitative study was conducted in support of a document analysis approach to generate varied insightful perspectives for Indonesian EFL teachers and learners to begin valuing the potential rewarding merits as a result of online formative assessment implementations in distant learning situations. Twenty relevant online formative assessment studies from 2020 until 2022 year were selectively chosen to produce more up-to-date and rewarding research findings worth applicable in nowadays Indonesian EFL teaching-learning enterprises. Based on the in-depth document analysis, two major pivotal research results strongly encouraged Indonesian EFL teachers to make use of online formative assessment in daily-based online learning activities namely: (1) online formative assessment progressively promotes holistic second language learning rewards for learners and (2) online formative assessment fully creates a more convenient EFL teaching-learning atmosphere for learners. These above-depicted research results opened a broader perspective for future researchers to replicate this research theme in the light of potential online formative assessment shortcomings and a greater number of relevant investigation sources.

English language learning is a process that students must go through in order to reach the optimum level of proficiency in the language. International student exchange programs are activities that might assist students in practicing and improving their English. The purposes of this study were to investigate the benefits and to identify the challenges of participating in an international student exchange program while studying English at the English Language Education Department of an Islamic Private University in Yogyakarta. The research design for this study was a qualitative descriptive one. The data for this study were gathered through interviews. Three students from the English Language Education Department of a private Islamic university in Yogyakarta participated in this investigation. The first finding concerned the advantages of participating in an international student exchange program while studying English. It shown that participating in international student exchange programs aided students in making foreign friends, interacting with native English speakers, practicing, and improving their English abilities, and boosting their self-confidence. The second result concerned the challenges associated with participating in an international student exchange program to improve their English. It demonstrated that students who participated in an international student exchange program failed to engage with local people outside of school and experienced culture shock. All associated parties, including students, host universities, university senders, and the program's committee, should organize and execute the program's activities with care and attention, beginning with the program's planning, preparation, deployment, evaluations, and follow-up.

Providing English learning material with an Islamic basis for Madrasah Aliyah students is important as the students are Islamic learners. This research aims to develop an e-module of Islamic reading text materials for the second semester of tenth-grade students of MAN 1 Pontianak. The researchers adapted the Analyze, Design, and Develop phases of the ADDIE concept to develop this research product. The analysis phase was conducted by interviewing the English teacher to determine the suitable e-module to be designed. The design phase was done by designing the contents of the e-module based on the analysis results. The e-module consists of recount and narrative texts materials with Islamic-based stories and integrates the values of aqidah (strong belief), tawakkul (reliance upon Allah), tolerance, hard work, and husnuzon (positive thinking). In the development phase, the researchers developed the e-module then checked it with a self-designed standard evaluation checklist. The result showed that the e-module already fulfilled the criteria of appropriateness. The e-module could be supplementary reading materials to make the students’ autonomous learning easier. It was written in easy-to-understand language and provided self-instructional material with independent self-evaluation. Specifically, it is expected to improve their understanding of recount and narrative text materials and strengthen their Islamic character values.

In the IELTS writing preparation class, the teacher can facilitate the students by integrating the stylistic approach in building writing students’ style. Not only achieving the primary goals in English proficiency by focusing on the writing style, but students can also comfortably share their ideas in their style. The paper examined the stylistics integrated material in IELTS writing through noun phrase construction. This study employed a qualitative method and a descriptive design. The data were collected using structured observation sheets as the instrument and were analyzed stylistically. Writing materials and the writing results of 12 students at an English course were collected. Results showed that stylistics was used in phrase complexity and ambiguity as a part of writing strategies. It was supported by the three dominant types of noun phrases produced by the students in their writing: determiner + head, determiner + pre-modifier + head, and pre-modifier + head, as the evidence of the implementation of integrated material in IELTS writing. For the noun phrase uses, the students could vary the noun phrases in their complexity, function, and type in their tests, though the variations in each of those aspects were still low. Implications of the results are stylistics could be implemented in language learning-teaching activities in general. It could encourage students to develop their writing style for self-expression and more explicit writing products.

Demotivation is a negative counterpart of motivation that affects student learning process and outcome. The present study attempted to determine the demotivating factors in learning a second language in Ghana using the Chinese language as a case study. A structured survey questionnaire data were collected from two hundred students learning Chinese at the University of Ghana to achieve the stated objective. The study identified the significant demotivation factors affecting students learning a second language: Teacher competence and teaching style, learning materials, crowded classroom, high competition in acquiring scholarship to China, less chance to get Chinese Ambassador Scholarship Award, and lack of self-confidence and experience of failure. Teachers should use more appropriate textbooks to improve their teaching skills. Also, students should be motivated to learn and participate in classroom activities to form lasting reminiscences.