ABSTRACT PROSPECTIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS&rsquo / VIEWS ON THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, AND PROGRAM OF THEIR DEPARTMENTS ERET, Esra M.S., Department of Educational Sciences Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet OK June 2008, 137 Pages The purpose of the present study is to investigate the prospective English teachers&rsquo / views on the physical environment, human resources, and program of their departments. Participants of the study were 278 fourth year prospective English teachers (senior students) from three public universities in Ankara. A fifty-six-item questionnaire, developed by the researcher and subjected to factor and reliability analysis, was used for data collection. Data were collected from all fourth year prospective teachers. Statistical program, SPSS, was utilized to carry out the descriptive statistical analyses. Responses to open-ended question were qualitatively analyzed. The results of the study revealed that the prospective English teachers agreed on the views that the instructors in their departments were qualified and competent / the physical environment as regards to meeting their basic needs, such as heating and safety, was satisfying / and the program and courses were generally adequate. On the other hand, from the students&rsquo / viewpoints, the institutions had common problems on the three dimensions, especially on the physical environment and resources. The students disagreed on the presence of language laboratory, the existence of social areas, guidance provided by the instructors, and the administration&rsquo / s support and attitude to the preparation of prospective English teachers. In conclusion, the results of this study can contribute to efforts on displaying the current status of the departments and evaluating the quality of the English language teacher education.

As a result of various historical, political, economic and sociocultural factors, English today witnesses a unique situation as its non-native speakers represent a clear majority in the world. This has implications for the ownership of the English language as such, the linguistic rights of its speakers and the points of departure for English Language Teaching (ELT) worldwide. The study of the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) challenges nativespeakerist norms through research in a wide range of linguistic fields such as lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics, suggesting various pedagogical alterations. Although ELF is now a prolific area of research, studies in Swedish upper secondary language education from an ELF perspective, remain a scarcity in the literature. The present paper engages in surveying teaching attitudes toward ELF in Swedish upper secondary education among Swedish and Anglophone International Baccalaureate (IB) teachers and in two contemporary syllabi, namely Swedish (ELT) and IB syllabi. The questionnaire given to the two aforementioned groups of teachers suggest that ELF-friendly teaching descriptions best suit their students even though both groups believe that teaching descriptions based on native speaker norms and varieties represent the most appropriate approach. The critical discourse analysis of the two syllabi suggests that ELF is approached in different ways in the two systems: the Swedish ELT curricula may be perceived as rather ELF-friendly because native speaker norms, deviations and errors, grammaticality and idiomaticity are almost non-existent, whereas the IB revolves around linguistic prescriptivism and native speaker norms to a larger extent. The present study argues that English language curricula in Sweden should be informed by research on ELF.

The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ perspectives on how they want to be supervised with a view to critiquing existing practices in light of teacher experience, viewpoint and professional aspirations. Documents used in the supervisory cycle in the setting of the study were analyzed to develop a broader understanding regarding the issues that comprise the supervisory activities and the supervisory criteria as documented by the educational organization that was the setting of this study. In addition, a total of eleven preparatory year EFL teachers in a university in Saudi Arabia were interviewed. The study used qualitative methods, with the data subjected to rigorous analysis that employed an analytical approach informed by the principles of grounded theory. The ideas gathered from the qualitative analysis of the interview data - complemented by the insights developed from document analysis - led to the emergence of two themes under which teachers’ expectations and ideas were grouped: 1) the professional aspect and 2) the social aspect. Under the professional aspect, teachers discussed their ideas regarding activities and concepts directly related to teaching practice and professional activities of teachers. The second theme, the social aspect, covers concepts which are related to the way the organization deals with teachers. Analysis of teachers’ interview data showed that there was some level of commonality between the ideas and expectations of teachers regarding some of the general points related to how they want to be supervised. However, there was considerable disparity in their priorities and their expectations regarding the overall approach of the supervisory system, to the extent that at times the expectations and priorities of some teachers were incompatible with and mutually exclusive of the expectations of the other teachers. This led to the conclusion that a multi-streamed supervisory system would provide for the needs of teachers with different expectations, priorities and needs. Such a system would have different streams with different activities for beginning and veteran teachers, with one or two more streams in between for teachers who do not fit in either stream. A multi-streamed system could allow the teachers the opportunity to articulate their needs and expectations and it does not impose a ‘one-size-fits-all’ system on all the teachers. Furthermore, it was recommended that supervisors should draw on the literature on professional life cycles and consider variables related to the workplace (regulations, management style, social expectations etc.) and to teachers’ personal lives (family, cumulative life experiences, individual disposition etc.) so that they can make informed decisions when assigning teachers to different streams within a multi-streamed supervisory system.

Title: The Positive Impact of the State School Leaving Exam on ELT Methodology. The Influence of Testing Writing on Teaching English at Czech Secondary Schools. Author: Eva Píšová Department: Department of English language and ELT Methodology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Lucie Betáková, MA, Ph.D. Abstract This thesis deals with the topic of testing writing in the context of the state school-leaving exam in English language. The research assesses the impact of clearly specified standards on teaching English to Czech secondary school students, and thus focuses on the field which no systematic investigation has dealt with. The research concentrates on specific subskills assessed within distinctive criteria, analyses the relationships between them and estimates their complexity regarding both student success and teaching challenges. Three major research strategies were used: (1) a quantitative analysis of the large-scale data, (2) a small-scale pedagogical experiment and (3) a survey. To examine the relationship between various subskills of language ability we analysed test score data from the school- leaving exams in the years 2014-2017. Data from secondary vocational schools students were mainly used, as the level of these students' language skills should correspond the most...

This study is an investigation of what digital tools and approaches teachers use in their teaching of English as a foreign language in Swedish primary schools, in years 4-6 in the Swedish state school system. This study also addresses obstacles and limitations which teachers believe exist in the incorporation of digital tools into their teaching at this level. Using the digital literacy framework as an analytical basis, the study presents results obtained from semi-structured interviews involving six primary school teachers teaching English as part of a range of subjects within the primary curriculum. Interviews were conducted in pairs of teachers. The results emerging from the interviews indicated that the widespread availability of technological tools in the classroom is not necessarily a guarantee that the technology is used in the most advantageous manner by teachers at this level. This finding runs contrary to the fact that the schools in question have provided pupils with 'one-to-one' solutions in the form of individual computer/ tablet loans. Another result emerging from the study is that teachers tended to be fairly conservative in their planning of English lessons involving ICT.

This diploma thesis is focused on acquiring communicative competence in teaching the English language as a foreign language. It is based on the presumption that students are not aware of some components of communication which partake in understanding when communicating in a foreign language (context of situation, nonverbal communication, paralinguistic features). This assumption is being verified via questionnaires. The theoretical basis describes the grounding and benefits of drama techniques used in teaching a foreign language and The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) method. Both these approaches are used for preparation of three experimental lesson plans which are put into practice. Video recordings are made which, along with information from students and their teacher, serve as a detailed analysis of the whole experiment.

Diploma Thesis focuses on integrating Hadoop platform into current data warehouse architecture. In theoretical part, properties of Big Data are described together with their methods and processing models. Hadoop framework, its components and distributions are discussed. Moreover, compoments which enables end users, developers and analytics to access Hadoop cluster are described. Case study of batch data extraction from current data warehouse on Oracle platform with aid of Sqoop tool, their transformation in relational structures of Hive component and uploading them back to the original source is being discussed at practical part of thesis. Compression of data and efficiency of queries depending on various storage formats is also discussed. Quality and consistency of manipulated data is checked during all phases of the process. Fraction of practical part discusses ways of storing and capturing stream data. For this purposes tool Flume is used to capture stream data. Further this data are transformed in Pig tool. Purpose of implementing the process is to move part of data and its processing from current data warehouse to Hadoop cluster. Therefore process of integration of current data warehouse and Hortonworks Data Platform and its components, was designed

The past few decades have seen a surge in awareness of issues related to both gender and sexual identity, which has shaped our understanding and use of these terms. However, there is a lag between awareness and practical changes, which can also be seen within education; teaching materials and practices change slowly, and the social and linguistic changes that are currently taking place are only partially visible in education. In the present study, gender and sexuality are approached from two perspectives: by analysing two EFL textbooks for upper secondary school and examining inclusive language use and representation of non-heteronormative identities, as well as by identifying attitudes and ideas expressed in interviews with three EFL teachers. The results show that LGBTQ+ representation is still scarce in these two textbooks; even though heterosexuality is not overtly reinforced in lexical choices, non-heteronormative relationships are not included. In addition, gender is still mostly portrayed as a binary, and gender issues are largely linked to male-female equality. In terms of the interviews, a general finding is that the participants are all aware of the importance of including and giving a voice to different gender and sexual identities when planning their teaching. However, deeply rooted traditions and the gender binary still play a role in how LGBTQ+ topics are perceived and addressed. Overall, it appears that teachers display more awareness and active inclusion of non-binary and non-heteronormative identities than what can be found in the textbooks.

Nowadays, becoming proficient in merely one variety of English may not be sufficient, since this does not guarantee an ability to communicate with the vast majority of English speakers worldwide (Modiano, 2009; Fang & Ren, 2018). Despite this, studies show that European ELT still largely focus on certain varieties over others (Modiano, 2009); hence, it is interesting to study the materials used within this context. The present study is intended to contribute to research within the field of World Englishes and ELT. The purpose of the study is to investigate linguistic variation and language ideology in teaching materials used in the course of English 5 within Swedish upper secondary schools. For this purpose, a content analytical approach has been applied for data collection, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Two EFL-textbooks, Blueprint A 3.0 and Viewpoints 1, have been analyzed and three interviews have been conducted with EFL teachers working in Swedish upper secondary schools. The data elicited through the study shows that linguistic variation in English is limited within the two textbooks, and that when speakers of non-standard varieties appear in the textbooks they are presented in a controversial manner. Moreover, the interviews conducted with the teachers yielded insights into teachers’ perspectives on the importance of exposing students to different varieties of English. The perspectives offered through the interviews imply that not all teachers consider the knowledge of dialectal and social variation within the English language to be of importance, despite that it is, in fact, an objective set for students taking the course of English 5. In general, the findings suggest that the linguistic representation within Swedish teaching materials and practices still favor certain Englishes, i.e. British and American English, over others.

This systematic literature review investigates translanguaging in ELT.Previous findings on effects, teachers’ perceptions and students’ perceptionsare investigated and reported in this review, as well as systemized in order toenhance the understanding of translanguaging, its use in the ELT classroomand perceptions of the concept. Ten articles from varying countries wereselected for this systematic literature review. The studies included wereconducted using different research methods and with varying approaches tothe term translanguaging. The observed effects of translanguaging weregenerally positive and the findings indicate that translanguaging is beneficialto students’ communicative skills and comprehension, increasingparticipation and confidence, as well as providing additional support forlower proficiency students. However, the findings also show translanguagingto have negligible effects when it comes to the actual language skills of thestudents. Furthermore, both teacher and student perceptions oftranslanguaging presented mixed opinions. While several teachers seetranslanguaging as a resource, many see languages as mutually exclusive andopt not to include the use of any languages other than the target languages.Students are shown to consider their linguistic resources important, but theyare hesitant to use translanguaging out of fear that it will be an obstacle totheir target language learning opportunities. Lacking professional trainingand institutional support for translanguaging is clearly visible in the findingsof both teacher and student perceptions. Further research is necessary inorder to generalize results and obtain findings applicable to ELT in aSwedish upper secondary school context.