This study investigates what L2 learners perceive as the impacts of their engagement through self-made video (SMV) creation on their vocabulary development (VD). Employing a qualitative inquiry, this study involved 12 Indonesian L2 learners attending an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Vocabulary in Context course at a private university in Indonesia. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. The study found that L2 engagement in SMV creation led to repeated-driven retention, contextualisation, and vocabulary comprehension, promoting VD. The findings suggest that L2 engagement in SMV creation promotes high exposure to new vocabulary through planning, researching, scripting, filming, and editing. The findings also indicate the importance of L2 learners’ engagement in the vocabulary learning process, as it fosters the ownership of learning, leading to improved learning motivation and vocabulary knowledge. The study provides implications for L2 instructors and educators, suggesting incorporating SMV creation into language instruction to promote VD, improve long-term retention, and enhance learner engagement and motivation.
The presented research conducted at the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University in Bratislava within the English language course elaborates on the issue of changes in teaching concepts. The research problem was identified based on a specific teaching experience, which indicates that a behavioural approach to teaching and learning is primarily applied in English language classes at the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University in Bratislava. The concept of constructionist teaching was used, and through qualitative phenomenological research, the student’s perspective on the implemented changes in the teaching process was examined. Focus group tools and phenomenological interviews were used to collect research material. In analysing the research material, the strategy of applying the constant comparison method was utilised. The research sample consisted of 26 students who interpreted their experience with the changed teaching concept, emphasising terms like chaos and fear of the new in their statements. The authors of the study comment on probable causal relationships and point out what is hypothetically possible in the teacher-didactics-learner relationship. Through their research activities, the authors also reflect on currently emphasised intentions, where attention is focused on changes or transformations in teaching strategies, in which the behavioural approach should no longer prevail.
This article examines evaluations of entities associated with countries in English language textbooks for junior high school students in Japan. Drawing on an APPRAISAL analysis and interviews, the study explores how evaluations of national entities are realized in the textbooks. Eighteen textbooks were analyzed, and three interviews were conducted, one with a textbook writer and two with textbook editors. The findings reveal that the English language textbooks evaluated entities associated with Japan in a positive light much more frequently than those related to other countries. This was realized by the writer and editors’ intention that the textbooks be used to teach aspects of Japanese culture and to nurture learners’ diverse perspectives toward countries and their cultures.
Undergraduate students’ attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) in developing countries like Vietnam are rarely explored despite AI’s increasing presence in higher education. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of undergraduate students towards AI. A quantitative research method was used, involving a self-reported survey questionnaire. The sample consisted of 460 undergraduate students (196 males and 264 females) from five public and private universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Data collection took place through a cross-sectional survey in November and December 2023. The General Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS), originally developed and validated in English by Schepman and Rodway (2020), was adapted to Vietnamese for this study. The scale comprised 20 items to evaluate students’ attitudes towards AI. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, t-tests, and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results indicated a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.705 for the total variable, demonstrating acceptable reliability. Consequently, Vietnamese undergraduate students displayed moderately positive attitudes towards AI. The findings also revealed no significant difference in attitudes based on gender, but there was a notable variation based on the student’s year of study at university.
The study assesses the English writing level of South Indian native Tamil language post-graduate students. The paper highlights the impact of native language sources in English writing and discusses the strategic implications. The study framed an English writing test instrument applying Bloom's Taxonomy to assess the level of writing. Quantitatively, 300 randomly sampled written transcriptions were taken for analysis. Qualitatively, a structured oneto-one interview was conducted among 27 language instructors, and 127 transcripts were observed to highlight the usage of native language sources, which resulted in poor writing. It assessed the students' level in L2 writing as mediocre, which was explained by 74% of the sampled responses. It found that the interference of native language in English writing made students make more mistakes in the order of words, subject-verb agreement, usage of tenses, and application of grammar rules. Further, it discussed the strategic implications for improvement as - a) repetitive incremental practice - teaching structures, tenses, and grammar rules of native and target language, b) conversational instruction - sharing differences in native and target languages, sharing of mistakes and errors, and c) timely feedback - a part of follow up mechanism for assessment.
Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI) (now also Highly Effective Teaching) is a type of teaching based primarily on one long-term unifying theme and its subsequent elaboration into branching themes and skills. Although the basic principles of ITI are reflected in the concept of the Czech curriculum, specifically in its project form (the Framework Educational Programme for Primary Education), there is only sporadic information on how ITI is used in pedagogical practice. The aim of this national cross-sectional study with a questionnaire was to determine the awareness of first-grade primary school teachers about the ITI model and to further focus on and explore selected applications of ITI in pedagogical practice. Only 23% of the teachers surveyed use the ITI model, and a higher level of awareness correlates with more frequent use. Teachers often use ITI in their practice in the form of one-day or weekly topics, and natural sciences are the most represented teaching areas. In most cases, teachers create their own materials for the ITI application. Still, they would welcome new ones (even though in 43% of cases, they consider the number of materials sufficient).
The paper investigates the feedback from 2nd and 3rd year students in a teacher training programme as part of the e-portfolio course implementation. Mahara e-portfolio platform was used in a compulsory elective course to enhance the learning experience and provide online space for completing various reading, listening, writing, speaking skills, and vocabulary tasks. The research adopts a qualitative approach and analyses expectations, fears, and contributions (before the implementation) related to e-portfolios and likes, dislikes, and suggestions (after the course completion). The paper reflects the students' first-hand experience with e-portfolios and seeks to contribute to the growing area of research on this topic. Based on the data, the expectations towards e-portfolios were relatively positive. The students showed concerns, especially over technical issues and digital skills. As to the potential contribution, the students highlighted the interactive nature of e-portfolios. At the end of the course, the students appreciated especially peer-to-peer learning.On the other hand, the students showed a negative attitude towards difficulties and challenges with using the eportfolio at the beginning of the process. The students also suggested using one platform instead of multiple platforms. The findings can be of interest to teachers, lecturers, instructors or anyone planning to implement eportfolios in the field of education, especially with a focus on higher education.
This study aimed to analyse the usage of English lexical bundles among university students who transitioned to Korean universities after extended periods in English-speaking countries. It was assumed that the duration of their stay would lead to distinct English language usage patterns. Ten participants were recruited: those who resided abroad for more than 5 years (six learners) and those who lived abroad for less than 5 years (four learners). Interviews were conducted, yielding an average of 30 minutes for each interview. The results revealed significant differences in word frequency and trigram usage in terms of students’ duration of stay. In other words, the residency experience in English-speaking countries influenced their language use patterns even though their current proficiency remained the same. Students with more extended stays showed greater trigram diversity and native-like patterns with VP and NP-PP fragments. In comparison, students with shorter stays displayed a prevalence of skewed VP fragment use and had narrower trigram usage. The factors contributing to their differing language use patterns should be investigated further when maintaining similar proficiency levels. Despite some limitations, such as excluding the impact of individual motivation, the findings highlight the importance of individualised language learning approaches, even among learners with similar proficiency levels.
Despite significant advances in the conception of cultural teaching and learning in recent decades, some unresolved problems remain. In Intercultural Learning, the cultures between which learners mediate still appear as bounded, nation-type cultures. In Transcultural Learning, it is unclear how learners could acquire knowledge of an unstable, dynamic, and hybrid object. This article suggests Cognitive Cultural Didactics, which relies on the concept of cognitive scripts, i.e., generic mental representations of everyday activities. Cognitive Cultural Didactics reconsiders cultural learning as the additive acquisition of cognitive scripts that govern everyday interactions in geographically more remote locations. By doing so, the cognitive paradigm can resolve some of the current intercultural and transcultural learning limitations. Moreover, Cognitive Cultural Didactics has essential implications for Anti-Racist Pedagogy. It may serve as an antidote against a racist mindset that puts people into binary categories based on skin colour, place of birth, or parents' place of birth ('Us' vs. 'Them').In contrast, Cognitive Cultural Didactics highlight that everybody has a complex collection of scripts reflecting their multi-faceted past experiences and observations. As a result, no person, whether born abroad or not, with native parents or not, can usefully be described with binary labels that simplify their actual complexity. A racist mindset can thus empirically be shown to be untenable with study evidence from cognitive research.
This survey study aimed to investigate the attitudes of Indonesian second/foreign language (L2) learners of English towards the use of Indonesian, learners’ first language (L1), in English class and to see whether learners’ study duration influenced these attitudes. 101 prospective English teachers in their first, second, third, and fourth year of study at the English Language Education department participated in this study. Descriptive statistics revealed that learners held very positive attitudes toward using Indonesian in English classes. Through a chi-square test of independence, it was also found that these attitudes did not significantly differ among learners from different batches. Informed by the findings, pedagogical implications include adjustment of assessments allowing learners to practice L2 more, enhancing exposure to L2 in and outside the class, and conducting confidence-building activities allowing learners to use L2 in a more relaxing environment, minimising fear of making mistakes. Suggested directions for future studies include conducting longitudinal or comparative studies assessing how bilingual instruction or learners' attitudes towards it contribute to learning outcomes. Investigating how these attitudes affect learners' language skills, such as listening and speaking, is also strategic.
The modernisation of the Slovak language and Slovak literature teaching is driven by several political, social, and linguistic demands to enhance the quality of teaching the Slovak language as a second language. This paper aims to analyse the importance of further developing educators' competencies and the necessity of implementing student-centred learning in the educational system. The paper concentrates on the practical utilisation of language, the advancement of students' creative and intellectual capabilities, and the appreciation of Slovak cultural values. The study analyses the importance of developing educators' competencies and implementing student-centred learning. Key focus areas include supporting individualised learning, creating inclusive classroom environments, and integrating interactive teaching materials and digital resources. Additionally, the study reviews existing research on the quality of Slovak language teaching in Hungarian-language schools, highlighting the necessity of enhancing teachers' digital competencies to innovate educational programmes.
The world is deeply connected through narratives, which enrich its stories and meanings. Tales about others and us bring vibrancy to life, making existence more dynamic. Critical Discourse Studies analyse these narratives, with the Discourse Historical Approach being a prominent method. This approach emphasises the centrality of narratives while integrating elements like comedy, tragedy, irony, and romance, as suggested by Frye. Such integration not only enhances causality, an essential aspect of textual analysis but also ensures that other essential features like conflict remain significant. By combining social dimensions with storytelling, this approach offers a more profound understanding of narratives. Habermas's theory of communicative action plays a vital role here, enhancing the semantic depth of the Discourse Historical Approach. It provides a solid foundation for analysing genres and narratives, making the process more authentic and insightful. Together, these methods create a robust framework for exploring how stories shape meaning and enrich discourse.
This paper explores the rapidly growing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, with a focus on its integration into teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). AI offers educators new opportunities to innovate and enhance the teaching process. This review aims to provide a thorough analysis of AI, specifically ChatGPT, in EFL classrooms, highlighting both the perspectives of teachers and learners. The study centers on university instructors who have incorporated ChatGPT into their daily English teaching practices. Research data was sourced from databases Scopus and Web of Science, with relevant studies selected based on predetermined criteria. Findings indicate that EFL teachers value ChatGPT for its ability to offer instant explanations, create supplementary teaching materials, and promote student engagement through interactive sessions. However, concerns persist regarding certain limitations of the chatbot, indicating the need for further refinements. The study emphasizes the importance of training and guiding educators in using AI tools effectively to minimize potential challenges. Lastly, it calls for more experimental research to further assess ChatGPT’s role and effectiveness in EFL teaching.
Translating from a developed language like English into an African language may be daunting. This is because African languages like isiNdebele and isiZulu may lack some standardised terminologies for specific terms of the developed source language. When African language translators face complicated terms from a source language that do not have appropriate equivalents, they resort to transliteration as a term-creation strategy. This paper aims to compare the extent to which translators of both Ikhambo Elide Eliya Ekululekweni (isiNdebele) and Uhambo Olude Oluya Enkululekweni (isiZulu) have used transliteration as a term-creation strategy, and the impact this strategy had in enabling the readers of the isiNdebele and isiZulu version of Nelson Mandela's biography to access the source text easily. This paper is, therefore, qualitative and comparative. The researcher will describe transliteration used in both the isiZulu and isiNdebele versions. A corpus-based method of collecting data (from both translated biographies) was used. A theory of dynamic or functional equivalence formed the principle against which both translations were viewed. The findings are that transliteration in both languages, isiZulu and isiNdebele, has been overly used even in cases where coined known terms exist in these target languages.
American Dream is a fascinating idea that has set scores of pilgrims in search of a new world. In the contemporary world, the idea has continued to inspire generations of immigrants to America in search of greener pasture .This paper interrogates the idea of American Dream using Jacques Lacan's concept of the imaginary order as a conceptual tool. It is the contention of this paper that American Dream is not something realisable. The experience of some of the characters who travelled to America in search of American Dream shows that there is nothing like American Dream, where the streets of New York are littered with dollars. Therefore, the study concludes that American Dream is a game which the imaginary order plays on human consciousness.
This study explores how Classera, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), is being used in Saudi Arabian secondary schools, focusing on its adoption patterns, available support, and ongoing challenges. Through a mixed-methods approach involving data from 91 teachers across five schools, the findings show that Classera enhances resource sharing and communication but is held back by gaps in infrastructure and training. While teachers commonly use basic features, advanced tools remain underutilized. Schools with strong ICT support and comprehensive professional development show higher adoption rates, pointing to the importance of expanding learner-centered curricula and offering continuous training to maximize Classera’s impact.
American Dream is a fascinating idea that has set scores of pilgrims in search of a new world. In the contemporary world, the idea has continued to inspire generations of immigrants to America in search of greener pasture .This paper interrogates the idea of American Dream using Jacques Lacan’s concept of the imaginary order as a conceptual tool. It is the contention of this paper that American Dream is not something realisable. The experience of some of the characters who travelled to America in search of American Dream shows that there is nothing like American Dream, where the streets of New York are littered with dollars. Therefore, the study concludes that American Dream is a game which the imaginary order plays on human consciousness.
One of the most important functions of mass media is providing information to its recipients. In this context, language of media plays a key role, together with changes in the society that have an impact on the language used. The paper deals with contemporary trends that may be seen in media speech, especially the phenomenon of political correctness, especially the hot issue of gender identity and gender-sensitive language, while paying attention to differences that may be seen in various languages, mainly Slovak. The English language, which currently serves the function of lingua franca, takes a prominent position in all these trends, and the alternations in English subsequently fundamentally influence other languages.
This paper investigates the impact of social media use and virtual communities on world Englishes. The term world Englishes refers to the different varieties of how English is communicated worldwide. Kachru (1985) described the language’s spread in terms of three concentric circles: the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle. The inner circle comprises traditional bases of English where it serves as speakers’ first language, such as in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. The outer circle refers to countries where English is an official second language, such as India and Kenya. The expanding circle includes countries where English is spoken as a foreign language or lingua franca, such as countries in Europe and the Middle East, as well as Japan. By exploring the varieties of English on social media, in this paper, the researcher examined how social media and digital communication affect these circles of world Englishes and how users position and use English. The researcher qualitatively analysed 15 X Spaces (former Twitter) following Mesthrie and Bhatt’s (2008) method of analysing syntactic and morphological structures and then examining the pragmatics features and discourse. This included the following components: (a) the noun phrase (b) the verb phrase and (c) other function words. The results show that people are using new Englishes in virtual communities. There are many variations in language use in the structural features of the participants’ language morphology, phrasal syntax, and pragmatics. The participants invented and used new language structures and understood them among each other. Based on this finding, in future studies, researchers could examine new Englishes in other virtual communities and their effects on people’s identities and languages.
Despite its crucial importance and being a topical issue in the current SLA research, EFL students’ WTC has received little attention in the Ethiopian educational context. The current study therefore aimed to explore EFL students’ WTC across communicative situations in an Ethiopian higher education instructional context. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from a randomly selected sample of 258 first-year EFL students taking “Communicative English skills” courses in Werabe University, one of the public universities in Ethiopia. The data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that the target students’ WTC varies across communicative situations. While Topic enticement, Off-instruction communication and Integrative orientation were found triggering students’ WTC, low perceived competence, communication anxiety, low learning responsibility, and classroom conditions (in part) were found hampering the students’ WTC in the class. The finding is believed to be useful reference especially for teachers to help achieve the desired goal of ESL/EFL instruction.
