i-manager's Journal on English Language Teaching (JELT)


Volume 6 Issue 1 January - March 2016 [Open Access]

Article

Learning Strategy Training in English Teaching

Evangelin Whitehead*
*Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Dammam, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Arulselvi, M. E. (2016). Learning Strategy Training In English Teaching. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 6(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.6.1.4805

Abstract

The fundamental task of schools is to endow students with strategies, which enable them to elaborate, transform, contrast and critically rebuild knowledge, that develops strategic knowledge. Learning strategy is the specific action to make the students better in learning a second language. Learning Strategy Training is based on problems the students encounter in the process of learning target language. These problems are needed to be solved for an effective learning. Learning Strategy Training focuses on learner training as much as language teaching. Students should be responsible for their own learning. The teacher helps them to facilitate their learning and to be more effective in learning the target language. Students should be aware of the use of strategies useful for language learning.

Article

Theoretical Triads in Chinese Thinking over Translation

Jiasheng Shi*
*Associate Professor & Director, Department of Translation, School of Translation and Interpreting, Jinan University, China.
Shi, J. (2016). Theoretical Triads In Chinese Thinking Over Translation. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 6(1), 8-14. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.6.1.4806

Abstract

Theoretical triads are commonly employed thought patterns and have played an important part in the history of translation. This paper presents a brief introduction to some of the most prominent triads in Chinese thinking over translation and clarifies the misinterpretations of them, with some of their Western counterparts given for comparative purpose. The triads covered include “faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance” proposed by Yan Fu, “sublimation, deviation, and mediation” by Qian Zhongshu, and “semantic beauty, phonological beauty, structural beauty” by Xu Yuanchong.

Research Paper

Professional Development and IELTS Training Course: a case of EFL Teachers in Iran

Hamid Ashraf* , Zeinab Kafi**
* Assistant Professor, Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Torbat Heydarieh Branch, Iran.
** Research Scholar, Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Torbat Heydarieh Branch, Iran.
Ashraf, H., and Kafi, Z. (2016). Professional Development and IELTS Training Course: A Case of EFI Teachers in Iran. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 6(1), 15-24. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.6.1.4807

Abstract

The current study aimed at investigating the status of Professional Development (PD) through examining teachers' perspectives over how effective they consider exam specific teacher training courses (IELTS in this case) which aim at increasing their PD. To this end, a group of EFL teachers, from different language schools in Mashhad, Iran took part in this study. There existed 30 teachers, most of whom were professional in teaching and had a good English proficiency. This training course consisted of all the skills and sub-skills of IELTS as well as the best possible ways to teach different skills of English. Teachers attended this program three times a week which started in February 2015 and ended in May 2015. As the main data collection mean in this study was a qualitative one, two open-ended questions were employed in the data collection process which aimed at finding what the participants' ideas about the T.T.C course they took were and also what the main motivating reasons for the teachers were for taking part in the T.T.C program. The accumulated answers were then analyzed and categorized into different groups and the percentages for each extracted category were calculated through SPSS. Besides, as for the quantitative data collection phase and also in order to check the probable relation of the program and teachers' Professional Development (PD), a researcher made questionnaire was designed and expert validity was employed to carry out the instrument's validation process. Therefore, two experts' opinions in the field were accumulated and further comments and modifications were done accordingly. The questionnaire, using Cronbach Alpha, revealed to possess a high degree of .902 reliability. Afterwards, the PD questionnaire, which mainly focused on teachers' self-declaration with regard to this case specific teacher training program and how effective they believed the program to be on their PD, was administered. Finally, the results were correlated through Cross tabulation and Chi square test. The results exhibited that, there exists a significant relation between the two variables i. e. majority of teachers believed the T.T.C program has been “influential” in their professional development.

Research Paper

Rhetorical analysis of the doctoral abstracts on English language teaching in Turkey

Kemal *
*Associate Professor, Gazi Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Turkey.
Ozmen, K. S. (2016). Rhetorical Analysis of the Doctoral Abstracts on English Language Teaching in Turkey. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 6(1), 25-35. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.6.1.4808

Abstract

Doctoral dissertation has an important role to embark on an academic career confidently. The case is much more challenging for the early career doctorate who strives to contribute to the wider academic community. Using Swale's IMRD model, this study analyzed the rhetorical organization of English abstracts of 147 doctoral dissertations written between 2010 and 2015 in national graduate programs on English Language Teaching in Turkey. The results revealed 38 DAs with IMRD model and at least 22 rhetorically deficient DAs, lacking critical moves and linguistic realizations. Most DAs seem to exclude the conceptual framework, gap and important submoves. Omission of the Discussion move was also found to be a problem among the DAs. In addition, DAs from the half of the programs do not comply with the word limits offered by the official guidelines. Based on the results, a guideline was prepared to offer a remedy for the responsible bodies.

Research Paper

Metadiscourse in Book Prefaces of Filipino and English Authors: A Contrastive Rhetoric Study

Leonardo O. Munalim* , 0**
*Faculty, Philippine Women's University and Philippine Normal University, Manila, Philippines.
** Faculty, Department of English, University of Santo Tomas, Philippine Normal University, Manila, Philippines.
Munalim, L. O., and Lintao, R. B. (2016). Metadiscourse in Book Prefaces of Filipino and English Authors: A Contrastive Rhetoric Study. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 6(1), 36-50. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.6.1.4809

Abstract

Grounded on the tradition of Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), this paper aimed at contrasting the presence of metadiscourse resources in a book preface of Filipino and English authors. It especially sought to see the similarities and differences of interactive and interactional markers between two cultures. A total of thirty book prefaces on language areas, fifteen in each culture were culled. They were identified, classified, and interpreted based upon the taxonomies by Hyland and Tse (2004) with the interlarding frameworks by Crismore, Markkanen, and Steffensen (1993); Hyland (2007); Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik (1985); and Yagiz and Demir (2015). Results show that a book preface is calibrated by authors from both cultures with a profuse use of interactional MD resources, that is, a book preface has to be more interactional than interactive. The results also put forth that differences in metadiscourse resources reside in the text due to the differing cultures of individualism and self-accolade among the English, and humility and text-economy among Filipino authors. In a nutshell, practical and pedagogical implications are offered in this present study.