Dòng Nội dung
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‘Keep talking’: using music during small group discussions in EAP./ Clare Cunningham. // ELT journal. 2014, Vol. 68, No. 2.
2014
tr. 179-191.

EAP tutors are increasingly aware of the issue of reticence in the classroom, especially during small group discussions. They note students’ reluctance to begin discussions in a quiet environment and observe short student contributions in group work. This study captured the perspectives of international postgraduate students studying on pre-sessional EAP programmes before pursuing Masters level studies in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, focusing on small group discussions and the use of background music during lessons, especially during those discussions. The findings indicated positive attitudes towards using background music in these settings, with more than half saying that it should or could be used during group discussions and almost two-thirds saying that they would adopt background music in future in their own language teaching classrooms. The findings of this exploratory study are useful for language teachers as well as tutors in other disciplines and with other age groups. Further research is required in order to consider tutors’ viewpoints and to study the actual effects of background music on group interaction during discussions in classrooms.
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A study into how high school students learn using narrative frames./ Takaaki Hiratsuka. // ELT journal. 2014, Vol. 68, No. 2.
2014
tr. 169-178 .

In order to explore student learning experiences in English language classes, this study employed a qualitative data collection method known as narrative frames, which uses prompts to stimulate written expression of ideas. Data were collected through narrative frames on three different occasions from 36 second-year high school students in a team-taught EFL classroom in Japan, in both English and Japanese. After collecting the frames, individual interviews were conducted with two students from the class and their team teachers to further enquire about their experience, particularly with regard to the use of narrative frames. Findings suggest that the narrative frame technique proved to be a beneficial tool for improving learner autonomy. It facilitated the students becoming responsible for their learning in general, and encouraged them to become more serious about their learning of the English language. Methodological implications for the future use of narrative frames are provided.
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An experiment on gesture and fluency in two German schools / Natasha Janzen Ulbricht. // ELT Journal Volume 72, Issue 3
2018.
p. 309-319.

Effective language-learning processes are key in multilingual societies, but past research on gesture and second-language acquisition has often focused on the relationship between gesture and cognition, but seldom on gesture as a teaching and learning tool. Although it is well established that gestures facilitate second-language learning, there is reason to think that different gestures may benefit children differentially. In the context of learning and performing a play, the experiment discussed in this article implements two English-language teaching methodologies, one with teacher gestures at the level of morphology and one with gestures at the sentence level. This experiment, with a diverse group of primary-school-age children, takes a naturalistic setting and shows that among the high and low performers there was a difference in long-term fluency development between the two experimental conditions. The data suggest that the fluency level of learners is predictive of which gesture type benefits fluency the most. Children who had a lower initial speech rate benefited more from teaching using gestures that are morphologically complex, whereas the children who had a higher initial speech rate benefited more from gestures at the sentence level.
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Blogging a journal: changing students’ writing skills and perceptions./ Ming Huei Lin, Ji-Jhen Li, Po Yi Hung... // ELT journal. 2014, Vol. 68, No. 4.
2014.
p. 422-431.

This article investigates the effects of blogging as an approach to journal writing in the EFL writing classroom by means of a 16-week comparative experiment involving two groups of EFL college students. The experimental group (EG) was required to blog daily while the control group (CG) was asked to do so using traditional pen-and-paper methods. The writing performance and general attitudes to and perceptions of journal writing in both groups were evaluated through a writing test and a semi-structured survey. The research results show that blogging a journal helped the students to achieve a greater improvement in their writing than did the regular pen-and-paper treatment. Additionally, although both groups developed similar learning attitudes in general, the EG experienced significantly less anxiety in writing than did the CG. This suggests that the blogging approach is an effective approach for students in developing both writing skills and learning attitudes.
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English as a medium of instruction: students’ strategies / Soruc Adem. // ELT Journal, Volume 72, Issue 1, (16 January 2018) 72/1
2018.
p. 38–48.

Although English-medium instruction (EMI) is now widely spread throughout the world, there is surprisingly little research into the challenges students face as they try to learn subject matter by means of a non-native language, or how learners attempt to address these challenges. The study reported in this article employed a qualitative approach, using video-recording, an open-ended questionnaire, and stimulated-recall interviews to investigate the difficulties faced by students working in International Relations and Psychology classes in a Turkish university. The students were also asked to identify the strategies they used in an attempt to cope with these difficulties. The students were indeed able to list a number of difficulties, but numerous strategies were also suggested to deal with the problems they faced. Implications are suggested for student support and teacher training, as well as suggestions for ongoing research.