Monthly Editions
Professional Learning Communities: What are they and what do they have to offer TEFL?
Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been advocated as a means of restructuring schools to maximize learning in the public education systems of the United States and Canada. This article will discuss the relevance of PLCs within the TEFL community.
Writing Wordless Picture Books to Facilitate English Writing
This study attempted to examine the extent to which students in the Department of Applied English in one selected university learn to sustain their English writing by using wordless picture books, and the effectiveness of using wordless picture books in terms of students’ English language learning.
Negotiating Identity from Auto-ethnography: Second Language Writers’ Perspectives
Recently, the concept of identity construction has been the focus of research in the field of composition and TESOL. Second language (L2) learners have to negotiate their identities in their social milieus. For this purpose, autoethnography is a valuable task for L2 learners as it allows them to explore their cultural background and identities.
What Item Response Theory (IRT) Can Reveal to Us： An Analysis of a Twenty-Item Vocabulary and Structure Test
A language test serves two basic functions: 1) it tries to measure the true language ability of a student; 2) it aims to evaluate classroom teaching. Based on the results of an English test given to one class at a high school, this paper aims to answer two questions…
Exploring the Effects of Learner Training on Motivation
This study was implemented in order to investigate the effects of a learner training programme on learners’ motivation in learning English. The study, which adopted the pre-experimental study design, was carried out with 30 participants studying in Compulsory and Voluntary English Preparatory Programme at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey in 2005-2006 academic year.
Organization for Engagement: Train Tracks for Heterogeneous, Oversized, Under-Resourced EFL Classes
In acknowledging the recently expressed need of some EFL teachers by Zappa-Hollman (2007), for more effective teaching methodologies and better materials for large classes, at all grade levels with mixed language level abilities, this paper offers teachers a quick, inexpensive, and highly effective speaking-interaction method, called “Train Tracks.â€
Inviting Student Voice
Inviting, including, and increasing student voice could transform and energize our activities, curricula, methods, and governance in English language teaching (ELT), and could engender a self-fulfilling prophecy of increased learning, student agency, and community consciousness.
Young Language Learner Assessment: A Case for Using Assessment Portfolios
The introduction of English into the Japanese elementary school presents an important curriculum issue of suitability and accountability: how to ensure that teaching and learning is enjoyable, easy to understand, trustworthy, and can improve practices.
Teacher Autonomy and Professional Teacher Development: Exploring the Necessities for Developing Teacher Autonomy in EFL Japanese Contexts
The main purpose of this study is to examine how EFL Japanese teachers can develop teacher autonomy. Teacher autonomy is related to various components including both individual teacher’s psychological factors such as motivation, stress, or job dissatisfaction and social factors which include school systems or educational policies provided by the government.
Perspectives on the English Language Education of Hong Kong’s New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum
The paper explores issues relating to the New Senior Secondary (NSS) English curriculum in view of professional perspectives from curriculum design and task-based principles. To underline the roles played by learners and teachers in curriculum development, this paper looks at curriculum from a social contextual perspective as defined by Graves (2006; 2008).
