Earticle

Participation of students in spoken activities within the classroom is an essential part of the aim of many English medium higher education institutions across Asia to enhance the English language proficiency of their undergraduate populations. However, while many researchers and teachers have discussed the alleged reticence of Asian learners, only limited attention has been given to understanding the process of how second language learners participate in oral activities within the undergraduate classroom. This paper draws on interviews, observational data and recordings of classroom interaction collected as part of a larger ethnographic study of Chinese-background undergraduates in an English medium of instruction university in Asia. The paper begins by exploring some of the assumptions about Chinese learners’ participation in spoken activities and then reveals how the epistemological assumptions made within the English for academic purposes (EAP) classroom shaped one group of freshmen business and economics students’ participation in spoken activities. A framework for promoting student participation in spoken activities is then outlined and implications for future research are discussed.

A study was conducted to examine what pronunciation aspects of Japanese EFL speakers cause mis-hearings for both American and Japanese listeners. Speech samples of 20 Japanese students were evaluated by Japanese and American judges for intelligibility and accentedness. Intelligibility was measured unambiguously by comparing what the subjects intended to say and what the judges transcribed. The judges also rated the accentedness of the subjects impressionistically on a scale of 7. Interviews were then conducted with the judges to discuss what pronunciation features were perceived to be the primary causes of their misunderstandings. Analysis of the data seems to indicate that intelligibility and accentedness have a quasi-independent relationship and that a strong accent does not necessarily lead to unintelligibility. Data also indicate that most of the pronunciation mistakes perceived to have caused misunderstandings are segmental, not suprasegmental. Few suprasegmental features were perceived to have caused problems, except for word stress irregularities which proved detrimental to intelligibility in quite a few cases.

This study compares how English faculty members at the same college in an EFL setting rate their students’ essays. Despite the diversity of their rating behaviors, some special features of EFL composition assessment emerged. First, language use attracted a very high proportion of comments (47%). Second, content was rarely commented on. Third, half of the statements on rhetorical organization were positive, whereas comments on other major components of a composition were largely negative. Last, the teacher-raters showed acceptable agreement of ratings without being given any rater training. Some pedagogical implications applied to the teaching of EFL composition are suggested.

Researchers have adopted diverse perspectives on the effect of peer review on student writing in the field of teaching English as a First Language (E1L) and English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) in the past two decades. Nevertheless, researches have chiefly centered on conventional learning settings with on-campus students in mind; scant attention has been paid to peer review in the distance learning context despite the fact that distance EFL learning is a growing branch of English Language Teaching (ELT) in the world today. To fill the gap, this study reports on an action research project into paired peer review in a distance-taught EFL writing course at an open university in China to investigate the extent to which peer feedback was used to improve EFL writing, how it was accepted by Chinese distance English learners and how it impacted on their transferrable skills and self-efficacy, i.e. ‘beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments’(Bandura, 1997, p. 3). Findings from the study indicate that peer review has yielded good educational benefits in these areas although there is still room for improvement. The article also discusses ways to overcome obstacles and to tap into the potential benefits of peer review in the study of other courses.

Taking the principles of constructivist thinking, teachers are required to transform their traditional class into a ‘constructive’ one. A Jigsaw class is an alternative. Jigsaw teachers believe that each student owns the capability to be the contributor of knowledge. Students are encouraged to learn from their fellow students in their expert team and when they go back to their home team they are encouraged to teach one another the material they have worked on in the expert team. Assigned different roles of captain, time keeper, secretary, and common member to maintain smooth functioning groups, the students from two junior high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia were involved in the experiment to reveal a reality of role assigning. Totally 32 students having the role of ‘captain’, 32 ‘secretary’, 32 ‘time keeper’, and 69 ‘common member’ were available. The analyzed questionnaires crosschecked with classroom observation, and some interviews eventually revealed one particular reality in Jigsaw classroom. The classroom reality revealed covers students’ perception concerning their own role, students’ perception concerning their own role related to the other roles in their expert team, and overall perception on roles assigned. Some underlying theories – Cooperative Learning, Jigsaw and Positive Interdependence – precede the main discussion.

This study investigates Korean English instructors’ perspectives and their local practices concerning a potential English-only policy at a university English reading program. English medium instruction has recently been encouraged at the university, in alignment with globalization fever. Korean English instructors have wondered whether instruction exclusively in English is the best policy for their program if English medium instruction is implemented. Six Korean English instructors in the program were interviewed on their attitudes towards a potential English-only policy. Their discursive protocols were categorized according to themes emerging in the data: (a) attitudes towards English medium instruction; (b) local constraints for English-only; (c) transformative solutions; and (d) localized professional development. The data revealed that English language policy has to consider local contexts for L1 incorporation because of, (a) the possibility of developing an unnatural classroom atmosphere in a homogeneous classroom; and (b) teachers’ and students’ proficiency. Accordingly, instead of mistakenly adopting an English-only policy which might prove problematic, a more mixed language approach with a rate of either 70:30, 80:20, or 90:10 was proposed in order to maximize students’ learning. Participants’ code switching practices in the classroom were discussed as an example of localizing English language policy.

Learner-centered classroom practices have been emphasized greatly in recent times since communicative language learning has become the major trend in the TESOL field. With the advancement of technology, language learners are able to directly and autonomously interact with native speakers of the target language and culture. The two-way communication via electronic mediums offers learners a meaningful context to engage in natural conversations with the aid of visual display on a monitor. This study intends to investigate the effectiveness of a task-based telecommunication in which 52 Taiwanese college students are paired with 52 American students to collaborate in three culturally related learning tasks. Quantitative and qualitative data serve as the evidence that the task-based CMC allows EFL students in large classes to gain individual feedback from language models (native speakers), as opposed to solely relying on the single authority (i.e. instructors) in the classroom to give input. The Taiwanese students’ learning behaviors, learning performance, and their motivations to communicate in target language had overall increased. Several suggestions with regard to online project design and execution are also presented to classroom practitioners and future researchers based on the findings of the present study.

In the English language teaching scenario in Bangladesh, several policy swings have occurred over the past two decades, the overall trajectory of which has been characterised by a marked shift from an emphasis on grammar-based rote learning to a focus on its role in facilitating communicative competence. Along with the launch of an entirely new textbook in 2000, the English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) aimed at improving the standard of English in terms of both teaching and learning in Bangladesh. This textbook stresses the need for students to learn to communicate in English rather than to just master the structure of the language. A corresponding teacher’s guide has also been published with teaching guidelines and teaching methods in accordance with the new curriculum standards. Reporting on a study on a group of English language teachers who are teaching in secondary schools in different parts of Bangladesh, this paper explores English language teachers’ perceptions of this new textbook and the teacher’s guide. It ends with some recommendations for the development of English language teaching in secondary education in Bangladesh.