Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.93434
W. Escobar-Alméciga
Education in Spain and Latin America has been experiencing an ever-increasing use of English as a medium of instruction at all levels and across curricula. Bringing the vast research-literature into a reflective dialogue is paramount to advancing the discipline and to refining English teaching practices. As such, this literature review systematically situates English-as-a-medium-of-instruction literature related to higher education within the Iberian-American school contexts where Spanish was the students’ first language. Thus, the paper asserts that while research that addresses methodological approaches, processes, procedures, and their effects in instruction is significant, there is still a pressing need for framing English-as-a-medium-of-instruction research within the reciprocal relationship existing among communication, classroom culture, social values, the classroom climate for learning, and ultimately, the students’ learning.
{"title":"Framing English as a Medium of Instruction Within the Iberian-American Spanish-Speaking Education Contexts","authors":"W. Escobar-Alméciga","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.93434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.93434","url":null,"abstract":"Education in Spain and Latin America has been experiencing an ever-increasing use of English as a medium of instruction at all levels and across curricula. Bringing the vast research-literature into a reflective dialogue is paramount to advancing the discipline and to refining English teaching practices. As such, this literature review systematically situates English-as-a-medium-of-instruction literature related to higher education within the Iberian-American school contexts where Spanish was the students’ first language. Thus, the paper asserts that while research that addresses methodological approaches, processes, procedures, and their effects in instruction is significant, there is still a pressing need for framing English-as-a-medium-of-instruction research within the reciprocal relationship existing among communication, classroom culture, social values, the classroom climate for learning, and ultimately, the students’ learning.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81583083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.92319
M. Porto, A. Pesci, Mariela Riva
This article describes the trajectories of collaboration experienced by three individuals in three different roles (informant, research assistant, and supervisor) in two research projects about English as a foreign language reading in a higher education context in Argentina. Data come from reflection logs and retrospective narratives written by them from 2009 to 2016 which were analyzed using content analysis, focusing on a continuum of collaboration. The article aligns with the critique of the discourse of “newer researcher” as a linear developmental trajectory as it illustrates the participants’ fluid, critical, complex, and personally relevant pathways. Placed within the debate regarding the affordances, complexities and challenges of the measured university, this research contributes perspectives from a peripheral setting generally underrepresented in the literature.
{"title":"Plurality of Voices in Reflecting Upon the Research Process: Trajectories of Collaboration in an Argentinian Setting","authors":"M. Porto, A. Pesci, Mariela Riva","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.92319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.92319","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes the trajectories of collaboration experienced by three individuals in three different roles (informant, research assistant, and supervisor) in two research projects about English as a foreign language reading in a higher education context in Argentina. Data come from reflection logs and retrospective narratives written by them from 2009 to 2016 which were analyzed using content analysis, focusing on a continuum of collaboration. The article aligns with the critique of the discourse of “newer researcher” as a linear developmental trajectory as it illustrates the participants’ fluid, critical, complex, and personally relevant pathways. Placed within the debate regarding the affordances, complexities and challenges of the measured university, this research contributes perspectives from a peripheral setting generally underrepresented in the literature.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88716741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.93110
Julia Posada-Ortiz
This article reports on a doctoral research that sought to unveil the identities present in the communities to which four English as a foreign language preservice teachers belong. The study was carried out with a decolonial perspective that included an interepistemic dialogue among narrative inquiry, narrative pedagogy, and the indigenous research paradigm. The main instrument of data collection was autobiographies. The participants and the researcher analysed data jointly. The findings indicate that the preservice teachers’ identity construction is mutable and not essentialised. Mutable as it changes over time and not essentialised since it involves social, cultural, and personal dimensions.
{"title":"English Language Preservice Teachers’ Identity Construction Within Academic and Other Communities","authors":"Julia Posada-Ortiz","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.93110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.93110","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports on a doctoral research that sought to unveil the identities present in the communities to which four English as a foreign language preservice teachers belong. The study was carried out with a decolonial perspective that included an interepistemic dialogue among narrative inquiry, narrative pedagogy, and the indigenous research paradigm. The main instrument of data collection was autobiographies. The participants and the researcher analysed data jointly. The findings indicate that the preservice teachers’ identity construction is mutable and not essentialised. Mutable as it changes over time and not essentialised since it involves social, cultural, and personal dimensions.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88693242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.91112
Alber Josué Forero-Mondragón, Á. Quintero-Polo
This article reports a study about how the discourse of standard English exercises disciplinary power in five international scholarships programs. This research interest arises from problematizing the discourse of standard English present in the requisite of proficiency certification through so-called valid tests. Adapting Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis model, we analyzed a corpus of five scholarship calls for applications open from 2011 to 2014. Findings reveal that the discourse of standard English entangles with the discourses of globalization, education quality, and competitiveness and qualifications to serve as the path to the construction of the subjects’ scholarship applicants. In this entanglement, school is set as a breeding ground whose disciplinary techniques (e.g., test training) objectivize people to satisfy multinational corporations’ hiring processes.
{"title":"Disciplinary Power Lying Behind the Requisite of English Language Mastery in International Scholarships","authors":"Alber Josué Forero-Mondragón, Á. Quintero-Polo","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.91112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.91112","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports a study about how the discourse of standard English exercises disciplinary power in five international scholarships programs. This research interest arises from problematizing the discourse of standard English present in the requisite of proficiency certification through so-called valid tests. Adapting Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis model, we analyzed a corpus of five scholarship calls for applications open from 2011 to 2014. Findings reveal that the discourse of standard English entangles with the discourses of globalization, education quality, and competitiveness and qualifications to serve as the path to the construction of the subjects’ scholarship applicants. In this entanglement, school is set as a breeding ground whose disciplinary techniques (e.g., test training) objectivize people to satisfy multinational corporations’ hiring processes.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87666920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.91153
M. Mahmoodi, Shiva Hosseiniyar, Negin Samoudi
This correlational study examined the relationship among some English teachers’ characteristics and their students’ foreign language learning. Eighty-two Iranian high school teachers who taught English completed a battery of questionnaires. The scores of the teachers’ students on their final exam were collected as indicators of their English achievement. The results revealed that there was a positive relationship between the teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom management orientations, personal accomplishments (a subscale of burnout), and students’ L2 performance. However, the correlations between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (two subcomponents of burnout) and students’ English learning were negative. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the teachers’ self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of learners’ English learning. These findings highlight the importance of such teachers’ characteristics for their learners’ L2 learning.
{"title":"EFL Teachers’ Classroom Management Orientation, Self-Efficacy, Burnout, and Students’ L2 Achievement","authors":"M. Mahmoodi, Shiva Hosseiniyar, Negin Samoudi","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.91153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.91153","url":null,"abstract":"This correlational study examined the relationship among some English teachers’ characteristics and their students’ foreign language learning. Eighty-two Iranian high school teachers who taught English completed a battery of questionnaires. The scores of the teachers’ students on their final exam were collected as indicators of their English achievement. The results revealed that there was a positive relationship between the teachers’ self-efficacy, classroom management orientations, personal accomplishments (a subscale of burnout), and students’ L2 performance. However, the correlations between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (two subcomponents of burnout) and students’ English learning were negative. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the teachers’ self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of learners’ English learning. These findings highlight the importance of such teachers’ characteristics for their learners’ L2 learning.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77785437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.91098
Mansoor Ganji, Farzane Safarzade Samani
This study investigated Iranian English as a foreign language teachers’ attachment styles and possible influential factors such as age, teaching experience, gender, and educational degree. The participants were 108 female and 79 male Iranian English teachers, chosen through convenience and snowball sampling. Using Google forms, a researcher-made questionnaire was sent to the participants. There was a positive relationship between age and a secure style, and a negative relationship between fearful and preoccupied styles and age. Further, there was a positive correlation between a secure style and teaching experience, and a negative relationship between fearful and preoccupied styles and teaching experience. Male teachers were more secure, and educational degree made no difference in secure and preoccupied styles.
{"title":"The Relationship Between Demographic Features and Iranian EFL Teachers’ Attachment Style","authors":"Mansoor Ganji, Farzane Safarzade Samani","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.91098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.91098","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated Iranian English as a foreign language teachers’ attachment styles and possible influential factors such as age, teaching experience, gender, and educational degree. The participants were 108 female and 79 male Iranian English teachers, chosen through convenience and snowball sampling. Using Google forms, a researcher-made questionnaire was sent to the participants. There was a positive relationship between age and a secure style, and a negative relationship between fearful and preoccupied styles and age. Further, there was a positive correlation between a secure style and teaching experience, and a negative relationship between fearful and preoccupied styles and teaching experience. Male teachers were more secure, and educational degree made no difference in secure and preoccupied styles.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85294123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.93408
Isabel Cristina Cadavid-Munera
This article reports the findings of a qualitative interpretive research study that explored the social representations children have about the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in elementary schools in Medellín, Colombia. Sixty children in first, third, and fifth grades of public and private schools participated in the study. Techniques such as drawings, pretend play, conversations, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Three analogies summarize children’s perceptions in this study: learning as “echo,” teaching as a power instrument, and English as a tool to “survive” or to “live and interact with others.” Finally, a reflection and some implications for the teaching of English to children are presented.
{"title":"Children’s Social Representations of English Teaching and Learning: A Study in Medellín, Colombia","authors":"Isabel Cristina Cadavid-Munera","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.93408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.93408","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports the findings of a qualitative interpretive research study that explored the social representations children have about the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in elementary schools in Medellín, Colombia. Sixty children in first, third, and fifth grades of public and private schools participated in the study. Techniques such as drawings, pretend play, conversations, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Three analogies summarize children’s perceptions in this study: learning as “echo,” teaching as a power instrument, and English as a tool to “survive” or to “live and interact with others.” Finally, a reflection and some implications for the teaching of English to children are presented.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76496185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v24n1.92481
G. Tavella, S. Fernández
This paper reports the findings of a case study carried out in an English for specific purposes class with student tour guides at an Argentinean university. The main objective of this research project was to analyse how the teaching practices in the English language classes favoured intercultural exchanges. Data were gathered through document analysis, surveys, and interviews with students and with core-subject professors. Results were analysed qualitatively. We conclude that we must foster a friendly and safe learning environment to give voice to learners from native communities so that they can express their own identities and thus give way to enriching intercultural dialogue.
{"title":"The Educational Purpose of Language Teaching at University: Giving Voice to Native Communities","authors":"G. Tavella, S. Fernández","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.92481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.92481","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports the findings of a case study carried out in an English for specific purposes class with student tour guides at an Argentinean university. The main objective of this research project was to analyse how the teaching practices in the English language classes favoured intercultural exchanges. Data were gathered through document analysis, surveys, and interviews with students and with core-subject professors. Results were analysed qualitatively. We conclude that we must foster a friendly and safe learning environment to give voice to learners from native communities so that they can express their own identities and thus give way to enriching intercultural dialogue.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74290183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper reports a collaborative autoethnography on a first teaching practicum at Universidad Surcolombiana. The study aimed at how we, as novice researchers and preservice English as a foreign language teachers, make sense of our teaching experiences in our first teaching practicum using collaborative autoethnography as a research method. The data were collected by reflective journals and ethnographic observations. Results show the meaning that we give to our experiences, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, by recognizing and analyzing our sociocultural context. Additionally, we were immersed in a virtual learning environment where we had the opportunity to confront unforeseen changes imposed by the pandemic, familiarize ourselves with possible issues that teachers grapple with, and imagine new ways to be ourselves.
{"title":"Preservice EFL Teachers’ Experiences in Their First Teaching Practicum: A Collaborative Autoethnography","authors":"Kelli Johana Ariza-Quiñones, Lizzeth Dayana Hernández-Polo, Kelly Julie Lesmes-Lesmes, Elcy Lorena Molina-Ramírez","doi":"10.15446/profile.v24n1.91259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v24n1.91259","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports a collaborative autoethnography on a first teaching practicum at Universidad Surcolombiana. The study aimed at how we, as novice researchers and preservice English as a foreign language teachers, make sense of our teaching experiences in our first teaching practicum using collaborative autoethnography as a research method. The data were collected by reflective journals and ethnographic observations. Results show the meaning that we give to our experiences, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, by recognizing and analyzing our sociocultural context. Additionally, we were immersed in a virtual learning environment where we had the opportunity to confront unforeseen changes imposed by the pandemic, familiarize ourselves with possible issues that teachers grapple with, and imagine new ways to be ourselves.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81457469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-19DOI: 10.15446/profile.v23n2.90533
Frank Giraldo
In this literature review, I analyze the features and impacts of 14 programs which promoted teachers’ language assessment literacy. I used content analysis to build a coding scheme with data-driven and concept-driven categories to synthesize and then analyze trends in the 14 research studies. Regarding core features, findings suggest that the programs were geared towards practical tasks in which teachers used theory critically. Also, the studies show that teachers expanded their conception of language assessment, became aware of how to design professional instruments, and considered wider constructs for assessment. Based on these findings, I include implications for the construct of language assessment literacy and recommendations for those who educate language teachers.
{"title":"Language Assessment Literacy and Teachers’ Professional Development: A Review of the Literature","authors":"Frank Giraldo","doi":"10.15446/profile.v23n2.90533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v23n2.90533","url":null,"abstract":"In this literature review, I analyze the features and impacts of 14 programs which promoted teachers’ language assessment literacy. I used content analysis to build a coding scheme with data-driven and concept-driven categories to synthesize and then analyze trends in the 14 research studies. Regarding core features, findings suggest that the programs were geared towards practical tasks in which teachers used theory critically. Also, the studies show that teachers expanded their conception of language assessment, became aware of how to design professional instruments, and considered wider constructs for assessment. Based on these findings, I include implications for the construct of language assessment literacy and recommendations for those who educate language teachers.","PeriodicalId":45095,"journal":{"name":"Profile-Issues in Teachers Professional Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89866316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}