English Language Teaching and Research Journal (ELTAR-J)

Nepalese Teachersâ€™ Perceptions on Integrating Technology in English Language Teaching

Durga Raj Bhusal — 2020-09-02

The best innovative endeavor the teachers of English have assumed so far is to integrate technology in ELT classrooms, to improve increase self-directed learning, learnersâ€™ motivation, integrated language skills, and self-learning environment. Accordingly, the integration of ICT in teaching and learning brings innovative learning environments and helps students to deal with knowledge in active, self-directed, and constructive ways. This paper explores the techniques of integrating information communication technology (ICT) in English language classrooms within the theoretical framework of connectivism. It demonstrates that integrating ICT tools in English language classrooms not only constitutes communicative and interactive sound skills but also the opportunity to construct ICT skills to make learners competitive in 21st-century skills. It further shows English language teachersâ€™ in-depth thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and practices of using ICTs in their classrooms. Moreover, it reveals that English language textbooks undervalue integrating ICT lessons and teachers are reluctant to use them and give main priority to the other grammatical and linguistic features.

Formative Assessment: English Teachersâ€™ Perspectives and Practices

Bhim Lal Bhandari — 2020-09-02

The study explores English language teachersâ€™ perspectives and practices of formative assessment. In order to achieve the objective, the qualitative research design was used. I adopted the interpretive research paradigm and the qualitative phenomenological research method to bring the lived experiences of the participants. Four teachers from two campuses of Rupandehi were purposively selected as the research participants. The semi-structured interview and open-ended questions were used in order to draw out information from them. The study was carried out within the theoretical framework of constructivism theory. This study reveals English teachersâ€™ good perspectives and practices of formative assessment as they are aware of the value, purposes, and various types of formative assessment. Since their perspective is clear, they use it to improve student's weaknesses, modify their existing practices, and bring desirable changes in time.Â However, in practice, teachers do not implement all forms of formative assessment to engage students due to their inadequate practical knowledge, time constraints, and large classrooms.

Extensive Reading Programme as a Strategy to Improve English Language Proficiency among Young Adult Learners: Initial Perceptions

Mei Lick Cheok — 2020-09-02

With the amount of empirical evidence available to prove the benefits of Extensive Reading (ER) for the development of language proficiency and literacy, those outside the teaching fraternity would think that language teachers and schools would be scrambling to embrace and adopt ER. This is not what I have experienced in a number of primary and secondary schools, including the institution that I am currently teaching. From my own experience as an avid reader and the research papers I have read, I am convinced of the magic of ER. This paper described the process and challenges in planning and developing ER through a 15-minute Silent Reading Programme (15-min SRP) that was carried out in a class of 18 pre-university students and preliminary findings on studentsâ€™ perceptions towards the implementation of the programme. The paper concluded with recommendations that can help other ER start-ups especially schools in Malaysia.

The StarbucksÂ® School of Language Acquisition: A Cheap,CaffeinatedPlan to Prepare for Academic Study

Jeff McQuillan — 2020-08-29

Many international students enroll in yearlong Intensive English Programs (IEP) in English-speaking countries in the hope of acquiring the language proficiency necessary for academic study. Nation (2006) estimatedthatthese students need to know between 8,000 and 10,000 of the most commonly used word families in English to havegood comprehension of adult-level texts. There is considerable evidence, however, that reading for pleasureis at least as effective as formal study inboosting vocabulary knowledge (Krashen, 2004), including academic vocabulary (McQuillan, 2019).

Exploring the Perceptions of Moroccan EFL learners Towards Teachersâ€™ Use of Humor in the Classroom: the Case of Students of English in Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez

Azz Eddine Diouani — 2020-09-02

For the purpose of enhancing teachersâ€™ effectiveness and studentsâ€™ learning, unnumbered teaching strategies have been researched and implemented in the area of English language teaching and learning, one of which is the incorporation of appropriate types of teacherâ€™ humor in the classroom. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to explore Moroccan EFL learners' perceptionsâ€™ of teachersâ€™ use of humor in the EFL classroom. To this end, 110 Moroccan EFL learners participated in this study. As such, quantitative and qualitative data were collected via means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings gathered seem to suggest that the incorporation of humor in the classroom is highly appreciated by the participants mainly because such incorporation has the potential to help create a relaxed classroom atmosphere, foster a good student-teacher relationship and thus, contribute, more or less, to promoting studentsâ€™ learning and teachersâ€™ effectiveness.