Pedagogical Tasks for Developing Learners’ Speaking Fluency in Chinese Senior High Schools

In this essay, the author explains and analyses the background and speaking criteria in Chinese senior high schools.This essay aims to put forward a series of pedagogical tasks about one topic that are designed to develop learners’ speaking fluency by implanting lexical chunks and 4/3/2 technique to help learners improve speaking fluency in Chinese senior high schools.     

Developing Preservice Teachers’ Expertise in Equitable Assessment for English Learners

This study illustrated a pathway of growth that a preservice teacher might traverse when learning to use and develop equitable assessments (EA). The study is rare in that it looks at the development of preservice teachers’ understanding and ability to design EA. I examined the understanding and implementation of EA of 23 secondary preservice teachers within two classes. The methods classes focused on the academic content area of science. Participants’ journals, teaching philosophies, and inquiry-based science units served as data sources. Participants progressed from a simple view of EA as “fairness” to a more sophisticated view of EA, including: ways to increase fairness, the importance of challenging students, and using assessments for learning. Results also showed changes in preservice teachers’ views of learners and the purpose of assessment. While understanding developed robustly, teachers’ assessment plans in their units were not as strong. Teacher education programs need to place more emphasis on developing critical understanding of EA practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.     

Young Learners in Language Schools

Karmen Feher teaches at a language school in Ljubl- jana,Slovenia.She is a Young Learners Sig Page Editor of the IATEFL Slovenia Newsletter‘In-Iatefl’,and an ESOL Examiner.She is also a member of IATEFL Slovenia,I- ATEFL UK,their Young Learners SIGs and the Cultural and Literature SIG. We have entered a period of swift changes.That is a fact. The modern technologies which have flooded the market and our lives have had their consequences:physical borders are narrower,communication and information exchange more ef-     

Students’ English Learning Anxiety in Senior High School

Since 1970s,the research on second language acquisition has been developed with times.The research focus of lLanguage teach ing has shifted from the study of how to teach students to how to learn for students,with particular attention to explore the influence that students’psychological factors such as learning motivation,learning attitude and learning anxiety have on learning outcomes.Among those emotional variables,anxiety is considered to be one of the most critical psychological variables.English classroom anxiety is different from the ordinary classroom anxiety and receives much attention from scholars.Horwiz(1986) pointed out that foreign language anxiety is a unique phenomenon in language learning.In China,English learning in senior high school is a very important period.It is a common phenomenon to see students behaving anxiously in the English class.Therefore,the anxiety in the English class of senior high school de serves attention.This paper will analyze the main reasons of students’anxiety and points out several effectively methods to relieve their anxiety so as to enhance English classroom teaching and learning effect.     

The ‘New’ Free Senior High School Policy in Ghana: Emergent Issues and Challenges of Implementation in Schools

Interchange - Free secondary education remains limited in the developing world, where some 80% of 264 million children currently unable to access secondary education across 65 countries associated...     

Fostering Learner Autonomy by Developing Learners’Strategies in The Classroom

This paper intends to discuss how to develop the learners’autonomous English learning abilities through strategy teaching.The problems of learning strategies were analyzed.Developing learners’strategies through classroom teaching is an efficient way to foster learner autonomy.The results prove that using the content of regular classroom teaching,which is a meaning ful context for the development of responsibility,can not only enhance the learning effect,but also save time for strategy training.The teacher’s guiding role in autonomous learning should never be ignored.Developing autonomous English learning in voca tional colleges in China is a long-term pedagogical goal.     

Effectiveness of “Scaffolding Instruction” to English Speaking and Writing in Senior High School

English speaking and writing both embody the students’English proficiency and thinking skills.Scaffolding Instruction is a teaching mode which can provide appropriate assistance when the learners are faced difficulties during the learning.In this paper,first the overview of Scaffolding Instruction will be discussed.Then the application of Scaffolding Instruction in classroom teaching will be introduced based on a case analysis of an English speaking and writing lesson.     

Teachers’ Learning Communities for Developing High Order Thinking Skills—A Case Study of a School Pedagogical Change

Interchange - This study deals with an elementary school that is undergoing a process of pedagogical change. The teachers understood that their weak point was excessive use of teaching based on...     

Discussions about Students’ Writing Ability Development in Senior High School

With the growing communication with western countries,English especially English writing is becoming more and more important while in China,some English teachers still haven’t given enough emphasis on fostering students’writing ability.Here the author will discuss it and give some suggestions.     

The Principles of Developing Speaking Skills in Classrooms

Introduction Speaking is intuitively the most important of all the four skills inforeign language learning.However,speaking is regarded as the mostdifficult micro-skill of the four.Classroom-based speaking practicenormally focuses on mechanically practisi…     

The Application of Cooperative Learning in Improving Rural Senior High Students’ English

English teaching method has been improved and the effect of teaching has become greater these years in China,but it is not satis fying.Therefore,adopting experiment approach,the present study aims to solve the question:Can cooperative learning bring effect to the English learning? It chooses two classes from a rural school,one is experimental group which adopts cooperative-learning approach,the other is control group which adopts traditional approach.Focusing on the analysis and comparativeness of their two tests’ scores,it studies the influence of cooperative learning on psychology,learning environment and learning which bring to the English learners,making a con clusion that the application of cooperative learning can greatly improve English learning.     

Can Providing Rubrics for Writing Tasks Improve Developing Writers' Calibration Accuracy?

Rubric-referenced calibration and the interaction between writing achievement and calibration, a measure of the relationship between one's performance and the accuracy of one's judgments, were investigated. Undergraduate students (N = 596) were assigned to one of three calibration conditions: (a) global, (b) global and general criteria, or (c) global and detailed criteria. Students in all three conditions provided global predictions and postdictions of essay exam scores. Although calibration judgments by condition did not affect calibration accuracy overall, statistically significant main effects were found between calibration accuracy by criteria and prior achievement. High achievers made more-accurate predictions and postdictions by criteria than low achievers. Regardless of achievement level, those students in the detailed rubric condition had higher postdictive accuracy for the organization criteria than did students in the general rubric condition.     

On Cultivating Students’ Ability of Listening Comprehension in Senior High School in the Northwest of Guangxi

Nowadays, the role of listening course is changed and listening teaching begins to gain high priority in foreign language learning and teaching. However, the English level of students in China is still poor, especially in the northwest of Guangxi. One of the reasons is that teachers in senior high schools have a tendency to ignore listening, because they think that listening is time-consumed. They have to finish the teaching scheme punctually, though listening is the basic and important skill among the other three skills, listening teaching gains no large progress.     

Brainstorming and Developing English Learners’Writing Techniques: Critiques and Recommendations

Empirical studies suggest that research, by use of a systemic approach, should follow a set of procedures that are clearly described and then can be justified. However, it is worth noting that no approach is perfect, in particular, when it comes to the studies related to ethnographic studies. In view of this, this critique aims to reconsider empirical studies using brainstorming strategy to develop L2 learners’writing techniques. Firstly, this paper looks at the theoretical framework and the aims of these studies. Following this, this paper simultaneously summarizes and critiques these previous findings in terms of genres in writing, new assessment criteria, practicality in English pedagogy, data collection and analysis, findings and pedagogical implications. The final section presents the further inquiry in the language education context. This paper concludes that the brainstorming strategy in the teaching of writing can only be used in some genres, and both the product-oriented and process-oriented approaches should be applied to teaching writing.     

Environmental Education in High Schools in Kosovo—A teachers' perspective

The integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education is a key priority in Kosovo's environmental action plan. However, at present it is not even known how environmental education (EE) is integrated in the country's educational system. With the help of a written questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 18 teachers, this study investigated the integration of EE in high schools (optional upper secondary education) in Kosovo. The representative sample of biology, geography, chemistry, and civic education teachers (244 persons) focused on various kinds of pollution and hazards of pollutants. Teachers' choice of topics was highly relevant, place-based, and linked to the experiences of students, but excluded sustainability issues such as the loss of biodiversity. EE was approached in three ways. The first approach critically reflected links between the natural, social, and cultural environment, while the second approach was characterized by knowledge submission of environmental facts. The third approach aimed at capacity-building and, in the sense of ESD, understood learning as process-oriented, participatory, and action-oriented. However, this approach was rather uncommon, most likely due to insufficient teacher preparation, large classes (up to 50 students), and little time (just one hour per week for EE). Class size and time also restricted outdoor activities, in particular field work. Nevertheless, in view of the interviewees, ideal EE would mean outdoor education, field work and other place-based, capacity-building practical experiences, and the development of critical thinking skills. This exemplifies that approaches to ESD may find support from dedicated teachers in Kosovo.     

Learners’ engagement online in peer help

ABSTRACT

Much is known about help seeking in face-to-face classrooms, but there is a limited understanding about how learners seek and provide help online. This study implemented a peer-help forum in an online technology course, and investigated students’ engagement in the forum, their perceptions, and the relationship between peer help and course performance. The findings suggested that students actively engaged in the peer help beyond the course requirements. Emerging themes are presented regarding the students’ online help-seeking and help-giving behaviors and their perceptions. In addition, help seeking was not significantly related to performance, but a significant interaction effect suggested that help seeking benefited the performance of a subgroup of the students – those who provided less help.