A hybridized society, Kuwait meshes Islamic ideologies with western culture. Linguistically, English exists across both foreign language and second language nomenclatures in the country due to globalization and internationalization which has seen increasing use of English in Kuwait. Originally consisting of listening, speaking, reading and writing, the first grade English curriculum in Kuwait was narrowed in 2002 to focus only on the development of oral English skills, and to exclude writing. Since that time, both Kuwaiti teachers and parents have expressed dissatisfaction with this curriculum on the basis that this model disadvantages their children. In first grade however, the teaching of pre-writing has remained as part of the curriculum. This research analyses the parameters of English pre-writing and writing instruction in first grade in Kuwaiti classrooms, investigates first grade English pre-writing and writing teaching, and gathers insights from parents, teachers and students regarding the appropriateness of the current curriculum. Through interviews and classroom observations, and an analysis of curriculum documents, this case study found that the relationship between oral and written language is more complex than suggested by either the Kuwaiti curriculum reform, or international literature concerning the delayed teaching of writing. Intended curriculum integration across Kuwait subjects is also far more complex than first believed, due to a developmental mismatch between English pre-writing skills and Arabic language capabilities. Findings suggest an alternative approach to teaching writing may be more appropriate and more effective for first Grade students in the current Kuwait curriculum context. They contribute also to an emerging interest in the second and foreign language fields in the teaching of writing to young learners.

The present study observed the use of educational code-switching to the L1 (Arabic) among six Arabic EFL teachers at Majmaah University, in Saudi Arabia. It used an a priori set of purposes based on Creswell (2003) and derived categories to examine the linguistic, social, and class management purposes behind code-switching. The instrument consisted of two parts: a demographic questionnaire and an audio recorder used in conjunction with a classroom observation sheet. Although some studies have suggested that educational code-switching to the L1 in EFL classrooms is an unconscious act (e.g., Moghadam, Abdul Samad, & Shahraki, 2012), the present study's results concluded the reverse: that the use of educational code-switching could be interpreted as an intentional practice among teachers in EFL classrooms. The results provided a more in-depth understanding of the use of educational code-switching to the L1 (Arabic). They agreed with previous studies that have found such code-switching to be very common among EFL teachers. Although participants displayed different linguistic, social, and class management purposes, analysis of the data revealed that certain purposes were more common than others, with linguistic purposes being far more common than social, class management, or other purposes. The most common linguistic purpose was to explain new words, and for class management was to clarify activities/exercises. Only two purposes, to engage in small talk with students and to connect between sentences, could not be categorized into one of the three main types.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2771.pdf: 10882459 bytes, checksum: 801d88f64d272c2fa1574fb040c74758 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-31 / This research was motivated by debates against and in support of grammar instruction in English as Foreign Language (EFL)/ English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching. Some studies, opposed to explicit grammatical instruction, do not believe that formal grammar lessons can develop the ability of using the target-language into spontaneous communication. They also advocate that grammar instruction can only develop short term declarative knowledge of grammar. On the other hand, this investigation aimed to observe the results of a one semester EFL course focused on form, whose purpose was to evaluate participants ability to use target language in communicative activities. The study is based on Batstone s (1994) noticing activities, which means attention to and manipulation of form. We also proposed meaning-focused communicative tasks. It is a qualitative study based on observing the process of accuracy development through multiple tests: before, during and after the grammar-focused intervention. According to Ortega & Iberri-Shea (2005), a 6 month period is enough to classify it as a longitudinal research. The study was developed into a high school first grade classroom of a semi-private school. The 20 participants, aged between 14 and 16, were exposed to grammar as Batstone suggests. The target-language item was the simple present, defined after a diagnostic test. / Este estudo partiu da discussão acerca da inclusão/ exclusão da gramática no currículo de ensino de línguas estrangeiras ou de segunda língua (doravante LE e L2). Algumas propostas, contrárias a qualquer foco consciente na forma, negam a possibilidade de que a atenção à estrutura da língua possa resultar em uso de formas-alvo em situações espontâneas de comunicação. Afirmam ainda que resultados positivos do ensino da gramática só podem ser observados em avaliações que meçam conhecimento metalinguístico em curto prazo. Na contramão a essas afirmações, o objetivo desse estudo foi observar os resultados obtidos em um semestre de um curso de inglês como LE com foco na forma, cuja avaliação mediu a automatização de formas linguísticas específicas, em um contexto de comunicação que requereu, não explicitamente, seu uso. Para tal, seguimos, sobretudo, a proposta de Batstone (1994), denominada pelo autor de noticing, que prevê a atenção à forma e sua manipulação ativa. Além desse enfoque, a intervenção foi organizada a partir da discussão de temas e foram propostas atividades comunicativas, com foco no sentido. Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, que observou o processo de desenvolvimento da acuidade linguística em avaliações múltiplas, ou seja, com a coleta de dados em diferentes momentos desse desenvolvimento, a saber: antes, durante e após o período de intervenção, que foi de 6 meses. De acordo com Ortega e Iberri-Shea (2005), esse período de observação parece ser suficiente para caracterizar a pesquisa como longitudinal. O contexto da pesquisa foi o ambiente instrucional de uma sala de aula do primeiro ano do ensino médio de uma escola semiprivada. Os participantes, 20 alunos cuja idade varia entre 14 e 16 anos, foram expostos à estrutura-alvo segundo a proposta de Batstone. Essa estrutura foi o presente simples, estrutura definida como necessária após a aplicação de avaliação diagnóstica.

The Swedish curriculums point out that language is crucial to social interactions, learning and individual development as well as essential to uphold a democratic and multicultural country. However, a recent report from the Swedish National Agency for Education depicts the language introduction programs for immigrant adolescents in Sweden as a school form in great need of development (Skolverket, 2016a). This systematic literature review, which draws on sociocultural theory, contributes to the field of how to teach English to newly arrived adolescents in Sweden. The main findings, gathered from six studies from around the world, suggest several different areas for improvement concerning EFL teaching. A specific pedagogy for EFL learners is suggested as well as targeted professional development for EFL teachers. Additionally, the results point out challenges faced by EFL teachers in multilingual classrooms. Further research could investigate how EFL teachers deal with these challenges. Furthermore, further research could investigate EFL textbooks for multilingual students at upper secondary school in terms of language, culture, identity texts and difficulty level.

To use literature in English as a foreign language (EFL) or English as a second language (ESL) classroom is something which, for many decades was regarded as too difficult or not relevant in many countries, Sweden being one of them. In the past few decades the view of literature as a means for education in Sweden has changed. Research shows that texts are useful to enhance critical thinking skills and to help foster democratic citizens, which is something the Swedish curriculum for upper secondary school advocates for. This study sought to examine what goals teachers apply to the teaching of literature and also how these goals were realized in the classroom and, reasons to why it what not realized if that was the case. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire, Google Forms, which was sent out to an upper secondary school in Sweden and posted on a Facebook page devoted to English teachers at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The results of the study showed that most of the goals stated in this study were realized to some extent in the EFL classrooms, but there were also discrepancies between teachers views on what is important to teach and what the curriculum states should be taught. An example of this was that some teachers did not teach the goal of text analysis, it was not found to be ‘interesting’ or ‘relevant’. However, the curriculum for English at upper secondary schools in Sweden, does not advocate that teachers should teach text analysis specifically. On the other hand, the curriculum does advocate that students should meet different forms of text. This study, therefore, also discusses possible ambiguities within the curriculum of English at upper secondary school.

The aim of this study is to investigate the approaches to teaching fictional texts that are exercised by English teachers with the intention of gaining an insight to the purpose of fictional texts in the Swedish EFL classroom. The levels in focus are the lower and upper secondary schools. The study was conducted by using a qualitative approach, and the data was collected through interviews with eight currently active English teachers in the Swedish school system. The results of the study reveal that the participants find selecting fictional texts for classroom, as well as student use, arduous to some extent. Correspondingly, the findings also show that the purpose of using fictional texts in the EFL classroom is to develop students’ social and cultural awareness by reading literary works with the following themes: post-colonial areas, arranged marriages, war zones, divorce, friendship, bullying, love and gender, religion, racism and death.

Målet med studien var att försöka ta reda på vilken roll bilderboken har i EFL klassrummet, i den svenska grundskolans årkurs 1-3, och hur de medverkande lärarna definierar bilderböcker. Tidigare forskning visar att användandet av bilderböcker i EFL klassrummet bidrar med flera fördelar för elever, bland annat utveckling av literacy. Den tidigare forskningen visar också att lärare bör ha i åtanke och undersöka att bilderböcker de väljer att använda ger en rättvis bild av engelsktalande områdens kultur, innan de påbörjar arbetet med bilderböcker.  Genom analys av kvalitativa intervjuer visar resultatet av denna studie att flera av de medverkande lärarna ser att det finns en tidsbrist i engelskundervisningen, vilken bidrar till att de väljer att inte använda bilderböcker. En stor fördel som de deltagande lärarna ser med bilderböcker är just bilderna, i form av bildstöd, som flera av dem nämner som fördelaktiga vid inlärning av ett nytt språk. / The aim of this study was to find out whether or not picture books have a role in the EFL classroom in the Swedish primary school, year 1-3, and how the participating teachers define picture books. Previous research show that using picture books comes with several benefits for the pupils, including developing literacy. The previous research also show that teachers should have in mind and investigate if the picture book of their choice do the culture, pictured in the picture book, justice. Through analysis of qualitative interviews, the result of this research show that several of the participating teachers notice that there is lack of time, which is part of the reason why they choose not to use picture books. One benefit that the teachers notice with picture books are the pictures, used as image support when learning a new language.

Teaching the cultural aspect of foreign language education is a complex and sometimes difficult task, especially since English has become an international language used in different settings and contexts throughout the world. Building on the idea that the spread of the English language and its international status in the world has made English an important school subject to develop students’ cross-cultural and intercultural awareness, this paper has studied what research reveals about the influence this has had on cultural representations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. Findings from a systematic literature review that analyzed four different international studies on the topic are presented. The study showed that EFL textbooks often present stereotypical and overgeneralized representations of culture and that the cultural aspect of EFL education is not adequately addressed since focus tends to lean towards language proficiency. Results also indicated that though steps are made to include cultural representations from different international contexts, the target culture of countries where English is the first language remains dominant in EFL textbooks. The findings are discussed in correlation with the Swedish national curriculum and syllabus.

This study compared cohesive devices in texts written by Japanese second-year junior high school learners with those in texts that appeared in the textbook they were studying. The purpose of the study was to determine which cohesive devices were being used in the textbook and which were used in the learners’ writing. The study used both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis began by determining whether there was any significant difference between the textbook readings and the learners’ writing in terms of the frequency of cohesive devices. It then examined the kinds of devices that were used by both groups of texts. The qualitative analysis compared the patterns of reiteration in two textbook readings with those in a sample of six student texts of different levels of success. The results showed no significant differences between the student texts and the textbooks in terms of the overall frequency of cohesive devices. Among the individual devices, however, there was a significantly higher frequency of ellipsis and synonyms in the textbook readings than in the student texts. There was also a significantly higher frequency of conjunction and reference in the student texts relative to the textbook readings. In all other devices, there was no significant difference between the textbook readings and the student texts. The qualitative study revealed the importance of strong opening sentences, reinforcement of the main topic through repetition, as well as of linking new topics with the main topic in the textbook readings. However, the presence of these features varied in the selected student texts. Accordingly, stronger texts contained all these features, average texts contained some of them, and weaker texts contained few or none. This study consequently supports other studies that have shown that the way in which cohesive devices are used is far more important in determining text quality than the number of devices used. The findings of this study showed the strengths and weaknesses in the students’ writing, and highlighted the need for a greater awareness of cohesion by focusing more on sentence building, and the use of a greater variety of cohesive devices / English Studies

Education is, at least, the endeavor to get people to do things they could not previously do, to understand things they did not previously understand, and perhaps, to become the people they did not expect to become. - Sockett, 1998, p. 195 In today’s fast-paced technology driven knowledge-based society, students in the Gulf and abroad, are expected to remain engaged while playing a more invested role in becoming independent, mature learners, no matter what their personal or educational challenges are. It is quite common for students to abandon their EFL studies due to a lack of motivation and/or confidence. There has been extensive research undertaken to better understand how motivation and confidence affect EFL/ESL learners, yet little attention has been paid to a more recent area of educational research in emotional intelligence (EI) and how self-coaching may also contribute to a tertiary EFL/ESL learners’ ability to succeed. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize that everyday occurrences encountered in their personal and academic life may very well, at times, have a detrimental effect on students’ confidence and motivation, and therefore impede their ability to reach set goals. This study explores the possible correlations between the three main constructs, confidence, motivation and EI while investigating female Emirati tertiary EFL students at Zayed University in the U.A.E. and their interest towards self-coaching to reach their academic and personal goals. This exploratory longitudinal interpretive study used a mixed-method approach to gather data generated from a survey (CMEII) constructed and piloted for this study and completed by 199 female Emirati tertiary EFL participants measuring motivation, confidence and EI. In addition, student journals, interviews and progress reports retrieved from CMEI workshops also informed the research questions pertaining to these aforementioned constructs. Results suggest that there is a correlation between confidence, motivation and EI. These results would indicate that when the level of motivation increases, so does the level of confidence in speaking English. Motivation to self-direct in English is positively correlated with problem solving, higher life-satisfaction and confidence levels. Surprisingly the higher the academic anxiety, the more students want to self-direct. Furthermore it was found that students participating in this study found self-coaching methods extremely helpful in supporting them in reaching both their personal and academic goals. The implications of this exploratory study into confidence, motivation and emotional intelligence has laid the foundation for future research in this area. By creating and piloting the first Confidence, Motivation and Emotional Intelligence survey instrument (CMEII) designed for the ESL/EFL learning environment, a primary obstacle has been traversed. The CMEII research instrument and results of this study will no doubt help bring light and understanding to how self-coaching and self-direction can support female EFL students in reaching their personal and academic goals in the U.A.E and abroad.