Asian Education and Development Studies最新文献

Purpose

As a result of the ongoing globalization and commercialization of higher education, English is increasingly being used as the language of instruction in universities across the globe. Despite the growing popularity of English-medium instruction (EMI) for academic subject instruction in Kazakhstan, there is limited research on regional university undergraduate students' attitudes towards learning EMI. This article explores a case study of a chemistry undergraduate program in Kazakhstan, where EMI is used. This study seeks to identify beliefs related to EMI, student attitudes and the challenges faced when studying science in English.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data were collected using open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with individuals selected using purposive sampling, which were then triangulated using classroom observations. The study employed a thematic analysis methodology to examine the gathered data, which included transcripts from interviews, audio logs from classroom observations and survey responses.

Findings

Following an in-depth look at the main themes, there were a variety of codes that made more sense when arranged in one of the four primary groups. These categories primarily focused on the possible obstacles that may be encountered when adopting EMI in Kazakhstan's higher education institutions. They are as follows: linguistic, managerial, cultural and emotional.

Originality/value

The results of this study will contribute to the development of improved EMI policies and practices that are more comprehensive, equitable and efficient.

Purpose

This study investigated the use of language impoliteness of primary school teachers in communicating with their students during the learning process.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology of this study used a mixed-method approach by involving 100 primary school teachers in the fifth and sixth grades. The researcher used the language politeness/impoliteness scale developed by Mantasiah et al. (2019) to measure teachers' language impoliteness. This scale was developed based on Brown and Levinson's theory who divided politeness maxims into six consisting of tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, appreciation maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy maxim. The levels of teachers' language impoliteness were divided into five categories (5 = always, 4 = often, 3 = sometimes, 2 = rarely, 1 = never).

Findings

The finding shows that 28% of teachers were in the sometimes category and 33% of teachers were in the rarely category. The results signify that some teachers tend to speak impolitely with the students during the learning process. They considered that it was acceptable as they did not know the negative effects caused by their impolite language. Moreover, teachers were more likely to violate sympathy, tact and agreement maxims than other maxims.

Practical implications

The finding of this study can be applied generally at all levels of education, ranging from primary education to higher education, as a base to develop a program to improve the soft skills of teachers especially the way teachers communicate with their students in the learning process. By understanding language politeness theory, the awareness of teachers in communicating in the learning process can be improved, which can affect positively to the quality of learning process.

Originality/value

Numerous studies conducted on communication skills of teachers focused on using communication sciences approach. This study tried to use another approach to portray the communication skills of teachers based on language politeness uttered using linguistics approach. Moreover, previous studies preferred to conduct language politeness and impoliteness of teachers in senior high schools and lecturers in university, and there is still lack of studies focusing on language politeness of primary school teachers.