Teachers’ beliefs toward multilingual awareness in target language learning play a significant role in shaping learners’ attitudes to language awareness, affect learners’ linguistic behavior and teachers’ teaching...Teachers’ beliefs toward multilingual awareness in target language learning play a significant role in shaping learners’ attitudes to language awareness, affect learners’ linguistic behavior and teachers’ teaching practice. Therefore, the present study was aimed to explore English teachers’ beliefs about Inner Mongolian university students’ multilingual awareness in L3 learning and their teaching practice in Chinese EFL context. One hundred English teachers from six universities in Inner Mongolia, China, participated in this investigation. The data was collected through a questionnaire and teacher interviews. The results indicate that English teachers hold positive attitudes to multilingual awareness in general;however, there are belief differences between Mongolian and Han teachers;there exist discrepancies between English teachers’ beliefs about multilingual awareness and their teaching practice, and social-cultural environment, family language policy,teacher identity, learning experience, teaching materials, and, more importantly, teachers’ lack of awareness of fostering learners’ multilingual awareness lead to the discrepancies. The present research highlights the necessity of raising teacher awareness of cultivating multilingual awareness in future teacher development and emphasizes the significance of exploring the potential cognitive advantages of multilingualism in promoting L3 learning and developing English learners’ multilingual competence in the EFL context in China.展开更多
This paper aims at investigating effective classroom-based instructive methods that facilitate the development of pragmatic competence of the intermediate-level adult English learners in China,who have gained relative...This paper aims at investigating effective classroom-based instructive methods that facilitate the development of pragmatic competence of the intermediate-level adult English learners in China,who have gained relatively high grammatical competence but low pragmatic competence.The paper starts with the importance and components of pragmatic competence.It then examines what should be taught to help develop learners' pragmatic competence.The paper focuses on some explicit instructive methods adopted by the author in her conversational English class that may raise learners' awareness of pragmatic knowledge and enhance learners' practice of pragmatic abilities:1) Encouragement of learners' observation of pragmatic phenomena by English speakers from authentic audio-visual materials;2) Discussion of linguistic variations for each speech act and strategies of carrying out certain speech acts according to contextual cues;3) Role-play tasks engaging students in different speech events and communicative actions.The effectiveness of these methods is shown by test results after at the end of the course.展开更多
Teacher efficacy in a particular content area is seen as an important factor shaping teaching practice and student learning in the Western literature.However,inadequate efforts have been made to examine this assumptio...Teacher efficacy in a particular content area is seen as an important factor shaping teaching practice and student learning in the Western literature.However,inadequate efforts have been made to examine this assumption empirically.Drawing on the Trends of International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS)2011 mathematics teachers’data at the eighth grade level,this study examines the relationship between teacher efficacy in teaching mathematics and teachers’mathematical instructional practices in five Asian countries/regions.Guided with Bandura’s social cognitive theory,this study finds that overall teachers in the five countries/regions reported much lower teacher efficacy in teaching mathematics and lower levels of instructional practices than the international norms.The relationship between teacher efficacy and instructional practices varied within these countries/regions.Teacher efficacies in teaching mathematics are not always statistically and positively related to their instructional practices in engaging students.Together,these findings challenge the theoretical assumption about the positive relationship between teacher efficacy and instructional practices.Possible reasons of these findings and future directions are discussed.展开更多
According to Noticing Hypothesis, focus on form instruction is in nature an efficient approach to redirecting learner attention during input processing to linguistic elements both within and across utterances. This st...According to Noticing Hypothesis, focus on form instruction is in nature an efficient approach to redirecting learner attention during input processing to linguistic elements both within and across utterances. This study examined the relationship between three teachers’ stated beliefs about focus on form and their classroom practice in intermediate EFL classes through classroom observations and interviews. The findings suggest that a tenuous relationship between the teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practice regarding focus on form, which is implicational to EFL teacher professional development.展开更多
文摘Teachers’ beliefs toward multilingual awareness in target language learning play a significant role in shaping learners’ attitudes to language awareness, affect learners’ linguistic behavior and teachers’ teaching practice. Therefore, the present study was aimed to explore English teachers’ beliefs about Inner Mongolian university students’ multilingual awareness in L3 learning and their teaching practice in Chinese EFL context. One hundred English teachers from six universities in Inner Mongolia, China, participated in this investigation. The data was collected through a questionnaire and teacher interviews. The results indicate that English teachers hold positive attitudes to multilingual awareness in general;however, there are belief differences between Mongolian and Han teachers;there exist discrepancies between English teachers’ beliefs about multilingual awareness and their teaching practice, and social-cultural environment, family language policy,teacher identity, learning experience, teaching materials, and, more importantly, teachers’ lack of awareness of fostering learners’ multilingual awareness lead to the discrepancies. The present research highlights the necessity of raising teacher awareness of cultivating multilingual awareness in future teacher development and emphasizes the significance of exploring the potential cognitive advantages of multilingualism in promoting L3 learning and developing English learners’ multilingual competence in the EFL context in China.
文摘This paper aims at investigating effective classroom-based instructive methods that facilitate the development of pragmatic competence of the intermediate-level adult English learners in China,who have gained relatively high grammatical competence but low pragmatic competence.The paper starts with the importance and components of pragmatic competence.It then examines what should be taught to help develop learners' pragmatic competence.The paper focuses on some explicit instructive methods adopted by the author in her conversational English class that may raise learners' awareness of pragmatic knowledge and enhance learners' practice of pragmatic abilities:1) Encouragement of learners' observation of pragmatic phenomena by English speakers from authentic audio-visual materials;2) Discussion of linguistic variations for each speech act and strategies of carrying out certain speech acts according to contextual cues;3) Role-play tasks engaging students in different speech events and communicative actions.The effectiveness of these methods is shown by test results after at the end of the course.
文摘Teacher efficacy in a particular content area is seen as an important factor shaping teaching practice and student learning in the Western literature.However,inadequate efforts have been made to examine this assumption empirically.Drawing on the Trends of International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMSS)2011 mathematics teachers’data at the eighth grade level,this study examines the relationship between teacher efficacy in teaching mathematics and teachers’mathematical instructional practices in five Asian countries/regions.Guided with Bandura’s social cognitive theory,this study finds that overall teachers in the five countries/regions reported much lower teacher efficacy in teaching mathematics and lower levels of instructional practices than the international norms.The relationship between teacher efficacy and instructional practices varied within these countries/regions.Teacher efficacies in teaching mathematics are not always statistically and positively related to their instructional practices in engaging students.Together,these findings challenge the theoretical assumption about the positive relationship between teacher efficacy and instructional practices.Possible reasons of these findings and future directions are discussed.
文摘According to Noticing Hypothesis, focus on form instruction is in nature an efficient approach to redirecting learner attention during input processing to linguistic elements both within and across utterances. This study examined the relationship between three teachers’ stated beliefs about focus on form and their classroom practice in intermediate EFL classes through classroom observations and interviews. The findings suggest that a tenuous relationship between the teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practice regarding focus on form, which is implicational to EFL teacher professional development.
