LET: Linguistics, Literature and English Teaching Journal

Language Teacher Identity in a Non-Native Context: The case of Teachers of English Language in Ghana

2024-06-11T06:06:39+00:00

The study investigated how English language teachers in Ghana construct their identities as teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ESL teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The data was analysed qualitatively by coding, identifying, categorising and interpreting the emerging themes. It was found that the ESL teachers’ identity is defined by three elements: personal attributes, professional attributes, and contextual factors. On the personal level, the identity of the ESL teachers is characterised by passion, diligence, self-efficacy, and sense of inadequacy. Professionally, subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge were found. Lastly, key contextual identity defining factors are curriculum and educational policies, classroom conditions and intrinsic motivation from learners’ success stories. The study recommends further investigation into other factors such as gender on non-native ESL teachers identity formation.

Key words: Identity, teacher identity, language teacher identity, identity and teachers of English

The Analysis of the Factors Contributing to EFL Student's Difficulties in Finishing English Undergraduate Thesis

2023-12-11T19:07:15+00:00

This research aims to analyze the factors contributing to students’ difficulties in writing an undergraduate thesis. The researcher used Narrative Inquiry as the research approach in this qualitative research. The participant was an 11^th-semester student of the English Education department at one of the universities in Malang, Indonesia. The researcher conducted a direct Interview with open-ended questions to gain the data. This finding shows four significant factors that affect an undergraduate student in finishing the undergraduate thesis: psychological factors, English linguistic factors, English Proficiency factors, and student attitude factors. Considering the findings, the researcher suggested some solutions in the following: Improve English linguistic ability; improve English speaking proficiency; organize time effectively; build communication with the supervisor; and read many references.

Unmasking Media Narratives through Comparative Corpus Linguistic Analysis: A Study of Russia-Ukraine Conflict

2024-06-07T20:40:39+00:00

In a world inundated with diverse media narratives, the Russia-Ukraine conflict emerges as a focal point of contention, revealing a complex interplay of linguistic strategies and discursive tactics. This study aims to unravel the intricacies of lexical choices, and discursive techniques employed by Sputnik, BBC, and Fox News in their coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict through corpus-assisted discourse studies techniques. Three corpora were created comprising 5,347 articles with 5,829,747 tokens, sampled from February 2022 to February 2023. Moreover, Sputnik’s diction strategically employs the phrase “military operation” while eschewing “war”, portraying the conflict as a defensive, legitimate endeavour, thus reinforcing a Russian geopolitical narrative that recasts Ukraine not as a victim but as an active participant with extremist factions. BBC, in contrast, adopts a pro-Western stance, framing Ukraine as a victim and Russia as an aggressor. Fox News calls Russia’s action as an invasion, and highlights the individual roles of political leaders in shaping the conflict. However, to address the limitations of this study, future studies can expand the scope, sources, languages, and genres for analysis. Furthermore, media consumers need to practice media literacy, cross-checking, and critical analysis in the era of overloaded information in order to form well-rounded opinions on complex geopolitical events.

Exploring Challenges of Differentiated Instruction in English Foreign Language Classroom

2024-05-07T06:05:47+00:00

A qualitative case study is utilized in this study to explore the challenges faced while implementing differentiated instruction in the context of an English foreign language classroom. A purposive sample method was employed by selecting five participants who had engaged in differentiated instruction professional development and had experience implementing differentiated instruction. The study discovered that teachers faced challenges when organizing and delivering differentiated instruction, such as dealing with the selection of materials, methods, and assessments that match students' characteristics, teachers' intrinsic factors, a large number of students, time invested, and learning references. Participants offered suggestions to other teachers who want to use differentiated instruction by exploring more variations of learning activities, being open to technology, participating in various forms of professional development, recognizing the personalities of the students they teach, and spending more time preparing instruction so that student's learning needs are truly met.

Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills and Practices of Its Strategies

2024-05-15T02:49:18+00:00

The study aimed at exploring the teachers’ self-efficacy belief for teaching critical thinking skills and practices of strategies in reading classroom. It also pursued if there is any significant relationship between the two variables. A descriptive survey study used sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to collect data. The study involved 40 EFL teachers. The survey contained 19 items using five-point Likert scale. Qualitative data were collected via classroom observations. The results of quantitative data showed(m=3.3) that the participants implemented the strategies moderately. The findings of qualitative data revealed that most of critical thinking strategies were practiced rarely while participants were instructing reading lessons. However, the responsive strategy of teachers to their students’ responses was implemented better than others. Statistical analysis also disclosed a positive high significant correlation between the teachers’ self-efficacy belief for teaching CT and its implementation strategies during teaching reading lessons (r=0.99, p<0.05). In conclusion, as there was a positive strong correlation between teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and actual classroom practice of strategies, teachers with strong self-confidence may have better experience in implementing strategies that improve students’ reading comprehension. This suggests that instructors’ strong beliefs to use critical thinking skills may not necessarily ensure its effective implementation of strategies.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Movie Poster

2023-12-05T10:11:46+00:00

Communication strategies in the modern period have become progressively multimodal with technological advancement. Multimodal communication involves forming a meaning through several modes than just language. This includes verbal and non-verbal communication, such as movie poster. Movie poster is one of the most effective promotional techniques to introduce the movie to potential audiences. Movie posters feature verbal and visual language as communication modes that can be interpreted to a certain meaning, including the movie’s theme, plot, and message. The visual grammar theory by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) propose metafunctions to analyze image, including representational meaning. In representational meaning, communication modes must be able to represent elements and their relations in a world outside of their representational system as perceived by people. This paper demonstrates how various modes in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” movie poster are integrated to represent meaning and symbolism in the movie through representational meaning.

A Critical Analysis of Imagery in My Heart Leaps Up: Illuminating Wordsworth's Nature Poetry in the Context of Ecocriticism

2024-06-11T06:10:50+00:00

This paper presents a critical analysis of the imagery used in William Wordsworth's poem My Heart Leaps Up, examining its role in the context of Ecocriticism. By offering a close reading of the poem and drawing on various eco-critical perspectives, the researcher explores the relationship between the poem's imagery and concepts such as biocentrism, anthropocentrism, eco-feminism, and deep ecology. Additionally, the researcher compares My Heart Leaps Up with other nature poems by Wordsworth and other Romantic poets, which helps us to identify particular stylistic and thematic features of the poem. This study aims to demonstrate how the use of imagery in My Heart Leaps Up connects to contemporary discourses on climate change and the anthropogenic epoch. This paper highlights the significance of My Heart Leaps Up within the broader context of Wordsworth's poetry and offers new theoretical and argumentative extensions to the reading of his nature poetry. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of how language and imagery can be used to convey the beauty and importance of the natural world and our role in it.

Integrated Skills Approach in Teaching EFL Writing and Speaking as Productive Skills: A Case Study in Indonesian Context

2024-05-03T07:26:04+00:00

Teaching English as Foreign Language to Indonesian students encourages teachers to motivate them in their language study by getting them to engage in successful writing and speaking skills. It can be early learning as relevant as possible to their language use needs. Based on a qualitative design, this study investigated the way an English teacher of eleventh-grade students used an integrated skills approach to teaching writing and speaking in the classroom. The research was conducted at one of the senior high schools in West Java, Indonesia with a qualitative method to explore deep information about the strategies and challenges encountered by the English teacher when she was teaching. The specific strategy revealed that the teacher organized activities and encouraged the students through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) including other strategies to overcome the challenges such as providing consultation and providing learning at night as an extra class. This study is expected to chronicle the need for this approach to be incorporated by English teachers in secondary schools to improve English teaching strategy today and future.