English teachers had to retrain and build a new normal in order to prepare for an online classroom while keeping their teaching pedagogy and professional identity as a result of the sudden changes brought by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in education. In this study, the effect of English teachers' professional identity transformations, attitudes toward online teaching was explored. The study's sample comprises 130 English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers from a state and a foundation university in Turkey. The research data was gathered from a questionnaire, the Teacher Professional Identity scale, and a semi-structured interview with 12 volunteers. Qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews were apportioned into pattern coding and analyzed through content analysis. EFL lecturers did not appear to be properly prepared for their online pedagogical and technological difficulties, which had a deeply corrosive effect on teachers' professional identities as they shift away from face-to-face education. The results showed that participants who were educated on EduTech during their undergraduate education or as professional development affected their perceptions of professional identity throughout the transition to online language teaching. Future studies can broaden the field of study by making use of exploratory action research, awareness of the teaching community, and continued professional development.

Foreign language teaching in the Slovenian educational context begins in the first grade (age 6). Many studies report a lack of qualified teachers at this stage of learning around the world and numerous authors emphasise the misconception that basic linguistic and didactic knowledge of teachers is sufficient for teaching children. All three Slovenian public universities are aware of this problem and offer pre-service and in-service programmes for (student) teachers who want to specialise in teaching English to young learners. In the present article, we focus on the subject-specific teacher competences for teaching English in the first three years of primary education; namely, linguistic, subject didactic and intercultural competences. We explore teachers’ self-assessment of these competences and their perception of certain elements pertaining to them. The study seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What subject-specific competences do teachers consider essential for teaching English in the first cycle of primary education? (2) To what extent do teachers believe they have developed certain subject-specific competences? (3) What are teachers’ attitudes toward certain subject-specific competences that the teacher needs for teaching English in the first cycle of primary education? The results of the quantitative survey, in which 100 teachers participated, show that teachers perceive their subject didactic competence to be the most developed and their intercultural competence to be the least developed. Moreover, they consider that a basic level of English is not sufficient for teaching English in the first grades.

Writing is very important for learners; it is a dynamic and creative skill. Although studies on students’ problems when writing a dissertation among Native Speakers (NS) are widely done, studies on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are limited, especially those which examine problems faced while writing dissertations among Ph.D. EFL learners, in particular, Jordanian Ph.D. candidates. Studies on the supervisors' perspectives of writing a dissertation are scarce among EFL learners, particularly Arab learners. This study aims at focusing on supervisors' perspectives of writing dissertations among Jordanian Ph.D. students who are studying abroad. This study is a qualitative case study. The researchers interviewed nine Malaysian supervisors who supervised 21 Jordanian Ph.D. candidates. The results show that six main themes emerged from the supervisors' perspectives, and they are grammatical mistakes, lack of vocabulary and verbs reporting, personal effects, lack of motivation, writing apprehension, and the problem with generic thesis structure. This paper contributes with a comprehensive analysis of the theoretical perspectives on problems Ph.D. students face when writing a dissertation. The study also fills in the gap in the field of supervisors' perspectives of writing a dissertation. Based on the results found, the researchers suggest a number of recommendations and further research that might help supervisors understand the reasons behind such difficulties.

The effects of international phonetic alphabet (IPA) instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) adult learners’ pronunciation have been well-recognized. However, not many studies on the topic were conducted in the Vietnamese context. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate (1) the impact of IPA learning on Vietnamese EFL adult learners’ pronunciation and (2) adult learners’ perceptions of the effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. The study was designed as an experimental study, following a mixed-methods approach, using the pre-and-post-tests, questionnaires, and interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Thirty-eight adult learners took part in this investigation; they were divided into two groups, nineteen in the control and nineteen in the experimental group. The experimental study lasted ten weeks before the questionnaires and interviews were administered with the participants in the experimental group. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in adult learners’ pronunciation in the experimental group. The participants in the experimental group also highly perceived the positive effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. Pedagogical implications and suggestions were presented at the end of the paper.

This study aims to explore non-English speaking major student’s perceptions of Motivation and Grit and the relationship between these two factors and students’ English language performance at a public university in China. The research was conducted by quantitative research design to collect 624 non-English speaking Major students’ answers to multiple questionnaires at a public university in China. Data analysis is used by SPSS and AMOS. The study shows that Motivation and Grit all have a positive correlation with English language performance. One major conclusion of this study is Grit has the most significant effect on the English language performance of non-English speaking major students in multiple regression analysis and is also the best predictor of the relationship between these two factors and English language performance in the path analysis in Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The finding also revealed that male students’ perception of motivation and grit is slightly stronger than that of female students. These findings highlight the need for English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher to understand students’ affective factors in learning English, and hence help them utilize different teaching methods to enhance students’ English learning and promote sustainable development of English learning in a public Chinese university.

The online flipped classroom has become increasingly applied to provide students with active learning. This search aimed to investigate the effectiveness of video lectures in an online flipped learning on students’ learning outcomes, students' video evaluation, and their experience in an online flipped classroom. This study employed mixed-method research implementing a quasi-experimental design using quantitative and qualitative data collection: pre-test and post-test, a questionnaire and interview. The participants were 78 Indonesian undergraduate students taking English as a foreign language (EFL) content course at one of the universities in Indonesia. The findings revealed that the students’ learning outcomes in the flipped classroom outperformed those in the control group. The students’ evaluation of the video lectures was high, and their evaluation was consistent with how they positively perceived the video lectures in the flipped classroom. This investigation showed the roles of video lectures on the students' participation and active learning in the flipped classroom during Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic time.

Regardless of varied lingua-cultural ideologies enriching the theories of communicative competence (CC), the four CC dimensions (e.g., linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse, and communication strategies (CSs)) still become the main cores of English speaking (ES) classrooms. Of the four dimensions, CSs seem to be the most technical which deserve to be persistently studied. Hence, this study aimed to probe into ES lecturers’ performances of CSs, their efforts to improve students’ CC, and the impacts of their efforts on students’ learning according to students’ perspectives. Two ES lecturers and 10 students at a university in Indonesia were purposively selected to be the participants. They were observed and interviewed according to the study’s purposes. This study uncovered various CSs performed by ES lecturers according to several contexts, such as to understand spoken texts, to understand spoken recorded texts, and to overcome temporary communication difficulties. Various ES lecturers’ efforts were also revealed according to their functions to improve each dimension of CC. Most students perceived the lecturers’ efforts positively due to the impacts on their motivation, self-efficacy, collaborative skills, and metacognition. However, few students echoed negative perceptions about a lecturer’s native-speakerism-endorsed effort due to lingua-cultural issues. Implication, limitation, and recommendation are discussed.

This study aimed to investigate essential employability skills for English as a foreign language (EFL) students in the Mekong Delta for the context of the 21st century. It was also to determine the similarities and differences between the important employability skills from the perspectives of the employers and EFL students. In this study, a questionnaire was delivered to EFL students who were juniors and seniors at a university in the South of Vietnam, majoring in English Education and English Studies (English Interpreter). At the same time, interviews were realized on both EFL students and employers. The findings showed that both EFL students and employers highlighted the attributes of self-confidence, receptiveness to feedback, and the use of body language in communication. The types of employability skills are similarly recognized among employers and EFL students in the same fields of employment. However, a significant difference was also found among employers on different job-specific skills. The results also indicated that EFL undergraduates were all highly aware of preparing the employability skills for their future professions.

The increase of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States of America (USA) public school classrooms and the diversification of the global education landscape urges initial teacher preparation programs to equip mainstream teachers with appropriate skills, knowledge, and dispositions to teach ELLs. This paper reports findings from a focus group study on elementary teacher candidates' (TCs') field experiences with ELLs. Based on interviews with four groups of TCs who completed their two practicums with ELLs, the study illustrates how mainstream TCs perceive their field experiences as future teachers of ELLs. The findings suggest that TCs recognize dissonances and develop care toward ELLs through their engagements in ELL-specific field experiences. The study also demonstrates how the recognition of dissonances led to changes in TCs' beliefs and values, which was observed through their imagination. Informed by their field experiences with ELLs, TCs began forming professional agency as future teachers by imagining specific teaching strategies, methods, and approaches they would like to implement with ELLs. Implications and future directions of teacher education programs are also discussed.

Learning by teaching is a technique where students teach an actual class to facilitate active learning. This paper reports ongoing research involving undergraduate students at an established university in Indonesia. The objective of this quantitative study was to find out the effect of this teaching technique in improving students’ 21st century skills. The sample was selected using a cluster sampling technique, where 25 students who were English as a Foreign Language pre-service teachers were assigned to an experimental group, and the other 23 students were treated as a control group. The students in the experimental group were asked to conduct a workshop in groups to students from the same department at a different university. Each group selected one of the topics in their course syllabus. A pre-test measuring the students’ soft skills was conducted before the course started and after it finished. The results show that soft skills, which include accountability, communication, innovation, problem-solving, teamwork, professional working, and networking skills, improved significantly among students in the experimental group, but the improvement was not evident in the control group. Therefore, learning by teaching should be embraced as an alternative teaching technique when soft-skill development becomes a target of instruction.

Mathematics anxiety has always been an interesting topic to study and discuss in the world of education. This study aimed to (1) investigate the impact of teacher roles, mathematics content, and mathematics anxiety on learning motivation, and (2) explore how students manage mathematics anxiety as a stimulus in learning motivation. This research used mixed methods with embedded concurrent design. The research sample was 100 respondents. The questionnaire instrument was arranged based on a Likert scale with 5 answer choices. This study used a structural equation model and confirmatory factor analysis as data analysis methods. The research findings indicated that: (1) a significant direct impact emerged between mathematics anxiety and students' learning motivation, and there was an indirect impact between the teacher's role and mathematics content on learning motivation; (2) students could manage mathematics anxiety when they were in optimal anxiety or positive anxiety so that they could overcome mathematics anxiety as a stimulus for achievement and deconstruct anxiety into motivation according to experience and personal resources. Results of this study confirmed that the statements about mathematics anxiety which always has a negative impact on motivation and learning achievement is not universal, because mathematics anxiety does not always have a negative impact on motivation and learning achievement if this anxiety is managed effectively.

This study aimed at exploring teachers’ perceptions of reflective teaching strategies in their teaching practice and the barriers that hinder the implementation of reflective teaching strategies. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained by using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study took place in the context of high schools in most of the provinces in the Mekong Delta. The respondents involved in this research were fifty English as a foreign language (EFL) high-school teachers. The results revealed that most teachers have positive perceptions of the significance of reflective teaching strategies in their teaching. At the same time, the participants found barriers preventing them from implementing reflective teaching strategies in their language teaching such as lack of awareness of reflective teaching strategies, time or workload limitations as well as some obstacles related to the application of peer observation as a strategy of the reflective process. Finally, accordingly, the findings gained from two types of research tools, some pedagogical implications, and research suggestions on the effectiveness of EFL teachers’ application of self-reflection strategies in the teaching-learning process were proposed in the study.

The purpose of this study was to look into teachers' perceptions of code-switching functions and effects in English as a foreign language classroom. In the study, a descriptive survey design and an interview were used to investigate the functions and effects of code-switching in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. 46 people responded to the survey questionnaire about code-switching functions and their impact in the classroom. Seven teachers participated in the group interview. The interview findings revealed six functions and four effects of code-switching. According to the survey findings, the majority of teachers supported the use of code-switching in their classrooms because it served a useful purpose in the process of teaching and learning English. The findings also revealed that teachers believed code-switching provided a clear purpose and had a positive impact on instruction and language development in EFL classrooms by creating a sociable environment. It was also demonstrated that code-switching to teachers was effective in EFL classrooms and played an important role in English learning and teaching. The implications of the findings for EFL teachers and language learning settings were discussed.

This investigation examined English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of their self-efficacy in using instructional strategies in the context of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The research was designed as a descriptive research collecting quantitative and qualitative data from a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Forty-six Vietnamese EFL teachers were invited to partake in the study. The results indicated that participants were in general confident in using instructional strategies in their English classes. Specifically, the participants were highly confident in their abilities to use multimedia (M=4.41), assessment techniques (M=4.35), and classroom English (M=4.35). The study also indicated that participants were not confident in evaluating the level of task difficulty (M=3.37), dealing with unmotivated students (M=3.57), and meeting students’ particular needs for support (M=3.62). Pedagogical implications and recommendations were addressed to help manifold stakeholders at the end of this paper.

Phonological awareness relates closely to listening and speaking skills. It also has an important role in learning to read in an alphabetic writing system. In the context of learning a new language, it is essential to figure out an appropriate strategy in accelerating the phonological awareness skill. The present study aims at investigating the effect of embedding phonological awareness training in adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ phonological awareness skill. It involved 63 EFL students who were divided into two groups: Experimental and control. The data were taken by using a phonological awareness test and analyzed by using independent samples t-test. The overall comparison showed that the experimental group who received an embedded phonological awareness training for 4.5 hours (45 minutes of six meetings) surpassed the control group who joined a regular vocabulary class without phonological awareness training (p = .017). Thus, phonological awareness training effectively accelerates adult EFL learners’ phonological awareness skills.

Learning literature is considered challenging for university students, especially in Indonesia, as they must perform assigned tasks and communicate with one another, in addition to receiving and transmitting comprehensible literature content knowledge from and to their lecturers. In many cases, students do not get sufficient feedback on what they are doing. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of feedback strategies by lecturers in English literature lectures in a higher learning institution in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach, this study involved three lecturers of the English literature department. Meanwhile, data were collected through 300 minutes of video recordings of drama, literary criticism, and prose lectures. The results revealed that the lecturers generated both negative and positive feedback strategies during the lectures. In terms of negative feedback strategies, they criticized students’ responses. By contrast, in terms of positive feedback strategies, they accepted, appreciated, and praised as well as repeated and answered students’ responses. The results also indicated that the feedback strategies became effective tools to improve students’ language competence, literary knowledge, and participation. This study suggested that lecturers use more positive feedback followed by additional comments during lectures as these could foster students’ engagement and keep learning longer.

Several reforms have been introduced to help enhance Vietnamese people’s English competencies. However, research on what reforms Vietnamese teachers support or resist is limited. Also, the impact of teachers’ demographic information on their responses to reforms is underrepresented. This mixed-methods study used a questionnaire, responded by 102 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers, and six semi-structured interviews to address the gap. The results revealed that the teachers supported the reforms in their teaching context. They preferred using their self-developed or self-adapted materials to using required materials. On the other hand, using the VSTEP framework for designing tests was not supported. Teachers’ demographic information, especially educational qualification, significantly differed one’s responses to reforms from those of another. Some practical implications were discussed at the end of this paper. Also, some recommendations were presented to be considered for further studies.

It is important for students who learn history to have the skills to think, read and analyze historical sources because past events can only be reconstructed and understood from these numerous resources. Various media methods are needed to support the development of these skills, especially in online learning. Therefore, this research aims to create a virtual field trip (VFT) based history learning media to help students improve their thinking skills using primary source evidence. It was carried out by using the research and development (R&D) method consisting of four stages, namely analysis, designs, conducting trials, and testing media effectiveness. The sample subjects consisted of six teams as expert validators, seven history teachers, 70 and 280 Class X students who assessed the product's practicality and determined the developed media's effectiveness. Data were collected through expert validation, student and teacher response questionnaire sheets, as well as description exams. The level of validity and practicality of the medium were determined using descriptive analysis, while the N-Gain approach evaluated the media's effectiveness. The expert validation result is very good, with an average score of 3.77. The teacher and student response tests showed an average score of 4.67, indicating that the VFT medium is practical for learning history. The N-Gain value of 72% showed that the students' abilities to use primary source evidence are increasing. Therefore, using VFT based history classes to develop explanation skills using primary source evidence is feasible, practical, and useful.

After months of 100% online teaching due to the pandemic produced by COVID-19, the return to face-to-face classes is being experienced. This study focused on finding the English as a foreign language (EFL) University professors’ perspectives of online education during that time. The information was collected from three Ecuadorian universities: The Technical University of Ambato, The Higher Polytechnic School of Chimborazo, and The University of Cuenca. The survey was designed with 26 questions about professors’ perceptions of online teaching and its impact on their pedagogical practices, affective factors, and student achievement. Software R, and the Cronbach's alpha tests were used as statistical tools, along with Kendall's Tau_b, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results showed that teaching online not only represents a solution in cases where face-to-face education is not possible, but also offers teachers the opportunity to experience the benefits of using technological tools and innovative strategies. Although some drawbacks, such as lack of time and real interaction were encountered, online teaching resulted in an alternative methodology that engaged learners.

In the Indonesian context, English is considered a local subject and there is no mandated curriculum for English in elementary schools. Meanwhile, English has been a compulsory subject taught at the secondary school level. The present study aims to explore barriers to teaching English experienced by non-native English teachers in Indonesian secondary schools and policy recommendations. The study employed a qualitative case study method. Concerning the data collection, the authors garnered the data through semi-structured interviews with six non-native English teachers teaching at private and public secondary schools in Indonesia. The findings of the study reveal that several barriers experienced by non-native English teachers include lack of training in English teaching and learning, academic literacy among non-native English teachers, school facilities, English-relevant materials, student motivation, and English exposure outside of school. Drawing on these results, some policy recommendations to improve English language teaching in the Indonesian context are discussed in this study.