Drama activities in the classroom are highly encouraged in the teaching world. However, they are rarely implemented, from our experience, despite being a crucial aspect of students’ education as mentioned in the National Swedish curriculum. Therefore, we felt a need to direct our research on this topic. Based on eight different studies, this paper explores the possible effects and underlying learning theories of different drama activities in EFL/ESL education on primary students’ English literacy skills and motivation. The studies were found collaboratively using electronic search engines to gather primary sources, including academic papers and studies. They were divided equally between us and summarized individually. The different activities were categorized into “Performance-based” and “Text-based”. Results indicated positive impacts on different literacy skills, such as reading comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and also motivation. Activities such as Reader’s Theater, scriptwriting, improvisation, role playing, and hot-seating were proven to be beneficial regarding students’ motivation and literacy development. Although this was not emphasized in our research, in order to successfully implement drama activities in the classroom teachers ought to be knowledgeable in the subject. This paper acknowledges other potential challenges, such as stress for certain students and concerns about noise and chaos. Vast majority of students enjoyed the drama activities, however, those who did not enjoy drama still showed improvement. Different learning theories such as socio-cultural learning, the zone of proximal development and the theory of multiple intelligences were highlighted as being connected to learning through drama activities.

The effectiveness of formative assessment in student learning has been acknowledged and gained much attention since the series of publications of Black and Wiliam in early 2000. Since then, many educational institutions have initiated efforts to use formative assessment in the classroom to improve instruction and help students become independent learners and thoughtful evaluators of their own learning. However, this approach has not been well understood nor heartily embraced by many English as foreign language (EFL) teachers in post-secondary settings. This qualitative case study research, paired with a confessional ethnographic approach, investigated four EFL instructors’ beliefs about formative assessment and their instructional practices in a post-secondary English program in Vietnam. The overarching question of the study was “how do four Vietnamese university EFL teachers perceive ‘formative assessment’ and how is formative assessment implemented in their classrooms?” To this end, I used theoretical frameworks from sociocultural theories, the Constructive Alignment perspective (Biggs & Tang, 2007, 2011) and formative assessment, suggested by Black and Wiliam (2009), to collect and analyze the data from three sets of interviews, observation notes, and artifacts such as lesson plans, course outlines, and students’ work. Findings showed that the EFL instructors in the study had different perspectives on student learning, teaching, and assessment. These participants indicated two conflicting teaching philosophies: viewing learners as active collaborators in constructing knowledge and viewing instructors as knowledge providers in the student learning journey. However, they all shared the same articulated beliefs about assessment procedures and employing standardization for their teaching and student learning. Findings also showed that the EFL instructors’ beliefs were not always congruent with their actual practices. There was limited use of formative assessment, and the formative assessment principles were not implemented effectively in their actual practices. Findings also indicated that their stated beliefs and practices were affected by many internal and external factors, such as the mental model of learning, teaching experiences, testing culture, workload, and program requirements. Three key issues were discovered: First, there was a lack of understanding of learning theories informing pedagogy. Second, there was a lack of general formative assessment theories and limited use of formative assessment in the classroom. Third, cultural values and societal pressure affected instructors’ beliefs and instructional practices regarding formative assessment. This study makes significant contributions to our understanding of higher education instructors’ beliefs and formative assessment in terms of research and educational practice. Notably, it adds to the growing knowledge of teacher cognition and formative assessment. It also suggests solutions for re-educating instructors and school teachers, including EFL/ESL teachers, about formative assessment and what should be reconsidered when implementing formative strategies in the classroom to enhance student learning. This research offers the following elements: (a) equipping teachers with underpinning learning theories informing pedagogy and assessment; (b) providing assessment knowledge and improving assessment literacy for teachers; (c) making formative assessment principles and strategies explicit to teachers and students; (d) training and practicing in providing constructive feedback that promotes student learning; (e) personalizing students’ learning to enhance students’ autonomy, self-directed skills, and long-life learning skills; and (f) utilizing student learning evidence to make instructional adjustments to meet students’ needs. / Graduate

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The aim of this study is to investigate how and why Swedish upper secondary school teachers use fiction in relation to the fundamental values in the EFL classroom. Using fiction as pedagogical material is an advantageous method when raising topics related to the fundamental values, which include topics such as democracy, equality, and gender awareness. The study is based on seven semi-structured interviews with Swedish upper secondary school teachers who all teach English. A content analysis was conducted in order to thematize and categorize the results. The project’s theoretical framework is based on modes of engagement as  presented by Rita Felski and phases of the reading process as presented by Judith Langer. The theoretical framework illuminates how and why teachers use fiction in relation to the fundamental values. The results show that the teachers mostly use novels and films to raise topics related to the fundamental values, since extensive narratives and character developments allow the pupils to get to know the characters and hence identify with them easily. In class, all the teachers appreciated[A1]  discussion as a method for their pupils to gain a deeper understanding of the topic at hand. The results further showed that the teachers believe fiction has great potential when raising topics related to the fundamental values. Pupils are able to react, respond to, and recognize themselves in what they read, which in turn teaches them something about themselves and the surrounding world. The results also show that the most prominent challenge with fiction is that not all pupils read or like to read. In conclusion, teachers prefer to use longer fictional texts, such as novels or films, to raise topics related to the fundamental values, and they use fictional texts because fiction as pedagogical material shows great potential in English classes.

This is a mixed-methods study investigating the effects of oral repetition tasks on Japanese students' use of lexcial phrases in communicative EFL instruction. The quantitative study showed that oral repetition facilitated the students' short-term memory of target lexical phrases but it did not translate into their long-term memory or use of the phrases. The qualitative study indicated that the participants perceived interpersonal conversations and small-group discussions in English as enjoyable and useful activities. / CITE/Language Arts