Journal of Language and Literature Education

1-8

Authors: Richard R. Day

The purpose of this study was to determine if peer observation (PO) in an ELT practicum for graduate students led to reflective teaching. The 15 students in the practicum taught EFL at two universities in rural Thailand in eight-week intensive courses. Five questions were investigated: (1) Did PO help the students engage in reflective teaching? (2) What were the students’ reactions to PO? (3) Did the students modify their teaching behaviors or practices because of PO? (4) Did the students change any of their teaching beliefs because of PO? (5) Would engaging in reflective teaching in the practicum generalize to subsequent teaching experiences? The data were collected by means of two questionnaires. The findings demonstrate that the students liked PO, and that they reflected on their teaching which helped them modify their teaching practices and beliefs. They also show that the students would engage in reflective teaching in future teaching.

23-38

Authors: Inta Klasone

Prepositions are used all time in English, but it is often difficult to know which preposition to use. Prepositions are “little words” but they carry a lot of meaning. It is important to choose the right preposition or we may say the wrong thing. The teachers of English as a second language know very well how important prepositions are. Language teachers must help their learners to develop their ability to use the foreign language. Our learners need to be competent in all skills. They need to develop at the same time knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, functional language and communicative skill. Learning takes place most effectively when learners are actively engaged in the learning process. It is important to have a wide range of visual resources in the classroom. These resources include pictures. Learning is a complex process and visual aids are a great help in stimulating foreign language learning. Taking into account the foreign language teaching aim, purposes and content designed by the Ministry of Education of Latvia for beginners pupils are supposed to master prepositions giving information about place: indicating position – in, on, at, under, and indicating direction. Verbal language is only a part of the way we usually get meaning from contexts. Things we see play an enormous role in affecting us and giving us information. We predict and deduce, not only from what we hear and read but also from what we see around us and from what we remember having seen. Teachers can help their learners get overall experiences through the use of pictures which illustrate places, objects, people and action from outside world in the classroom. The object of the research is English learning process in forms 3 and 4. The subject of the research is teaching prepositions to young learners using pictures. The aim of the research is to describe the importance of teaching prepositions and to demonstrate how to use pictures when teaching prepositions to young learners.

52-61

Authors: Esin Kumlu

In the twenty first century world everything changes so quickly and education systems have also been affected by such rapid change. As a result of the parallelism to the changes, globalism and cultural studies have gained significance within the field of education. For novice teachers in particular, having cultural awareness and a point of view about what has been happening around the world are significant factors for becoming a well-equipped teacher. In relation to this, comparative literature studies may be a means to assist novice teachers to gain both cultural and social awareness. As a result of its nature, comparative literature studies trigger the study of sociology, psychology, political sciences and cultural studies and may therefore help students’ both linguistic and sociological development. In order to analyze students’ attitudes towards comparative literature studies a six question survey was given to ELT students at Dokuz Eylül University. As a result of the findings it becomes patent that although students appreciate literature courses, they would also prefer to engage in different course content. In addition, according to the survey, students underline the fact that grammar study alone is insufficient for becoming a teacher; they also need to be aware of their own and other cultures. In relation to the above, there is a significant need for studying both Turkish literature and comparative studies within the Turkish education system.

78-95

Authors: Ihsan Unaldı, Mehmet Bardakcı, Kadriye Dilek Akpınar & Ferhat Dolas

This experimental study tries to compare the effectiveness of corpus-informed, contextualized and decontextualized vocabulary instruction in an EFL setting. The participants were 69 high school pre-intermediate language learners in a state school. During the 8-week experimentation process, one of the experimental groups was treated with corpus-informed instruction while the other one studied the same target vocabulary through decontextualized vocabulary activities. With the control group, on the other hand, sessions where the learners were exposed to the target words in meaningful reading contexts were carried out. Before these sessions, the corpus group was trained about the rationale behind concordances and how to use them. A multiple-choice vocabulary test which was composed of the target words was administered both before and after the treatments. Because of its convenience in experimental settings, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed. The results of the statistical analyses indicated that the group that studied the target words through decontextualized learning activities scored a significantly higher mean in the post-test when compared to the other two groups. The group with corpus-informed instruction also displayed some progress, albeit statistically insignificant. Interestingly, the control group, which was treated with contextualized vocabulary activities, made the least progress.

118-131

Authors: Aşkın H. Yıldırım

This article aims to examine the use of graphic novels as a teaching tool. In order to provide the necessary background information, the historical evolution of graphic novels as well as the definition of the genre is presented. Graphic Novels with their raising popularity and many recognized benefits have been a fast growing genre in recent years. Research done by professionals in the field has proved that they may serve as powerful instructional tools in addition to their merits as works of literature. Particularly, in language classrooms graphic novels can be used to boost many different skills. Although there are still reservations and doubts as to their efficiency, the worth of graphic novels as a pedagogical tool has been proved by substantial evidence. In this article, different arguments concerning the use of graphic novels as teaching tools are discussed. Although the main focus is the use of these novels in language classrooms, the article also explores the possible and current use of graphic novels in other fields of study.