Vol. 4 Issue 29 – Research Paper: ‘Influence of Culture in ESL Learning in Jaffna, Sri Lanka’ by Vairamuthu Suntharesan

Since English has been branded as an international language, teaching for linguistic competence can not be isolated from teaching for intercultural competence. Yet intercultural communication has not been paid due attention to in ESL teaching in Sri Lanka. It prompts us to realize the fact that Sri Lankan students of English may master English in terms of its grammar and linguistic aspects but encounter several problems in intercultural communication. This article aims to pay more attention to intercultural communication in English language teaching to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence. Further, the article emphasizes increasingly important role of intercultural communication in English language teaching and the necessity to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence. Sample learning and teaching activities are presented to be integrated in ESL teaching and learning. As per data elicited by the author, an enlightenment of the cultural norms and values of native speakers of English to students of English as a Second language would cushion against the ‘culture shock’ learners may experience during the learning process. Further, the comparison learners’ own culture with the foreign culture in the classroom would facilitate learning.

Continue ReadingVol. 4 Issue 29 – Research Paper: ‘Influence of Culture in ESL Learning in Jaffna, Sri Lanka’ by Vairamuthu Suntharesan

Vol. 4 Issue 28 – Research Paper: ‘How to Cope With Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classrooms’ by Ali KARAKAŞ

Many English language teachers are familiar with the above statement voiced by a majority of their students in speaking classes. This is, as well, a common complaint levelled by EFL teachers about their silent students. This is because teaching spoken language is deemed as a rather demanding task for teachers to achieve as compared to the other aspects of language teaching (Brown & Yule, 1999) and for learners, speaking is a highly anxiety-provoking situation (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986). The above comment from a student essentially points to the psychological construct termed as “anxiety”, which has been in the limelight of language research since 1980s (e.g. Horwitz et. al., 1986; Young, 1991) and has been found to excessively influence students’ oral skill (Fang-peng & Dong, 2010). Despite its significant impact on language learning, EFL teachers have failed to identify students suffering from anxiety in speaking classes, even worse, instead of taking steps, teachers misconceived their students’ anxiety as low ability, reluctance to engage in speaking activities or low motivation (Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2009) and have rarely taken measures to handle this serious issue (Riasiti, 2011). It is for these reasons that this paper aims to shed light on the sources of speaking anxiety by providing suggestions to diminish its adverse effects on learners’ performance in speaking classes.

Continue ReadingVol. 4 Issue 28 – Research Paper: ‘How to Cope With Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classrooms’ by Ali KARAKAŞ

Vol. 4 Issue 28 – Research Paper: ‘Communicative English Language Teaching: It’s Concurrent Relevance – An overview’ by Jinendra Jain

English Language Teaching resides in among many methods and approaches. The span is spread from Grammar Translation method to the recent method Communicative Language Teaching method, participatory approaches and multiple intelligence. The different techniques of ELT have seen several changes, upheavals and transitions. The trend of Language teaching and learning started from writing on dry leaves, then with chalk and duster with black board and then with most modern technological tools like computer, mobiles and satellite and with internet. But, in spite of all this, the ability of ‘Communication’ of the people (learners) has not been that improved which was much expected the way technology developed. The present article focusses chiefly as to how the learners can develop their communicative ability.

Continue ReadingVol. 4 Issue 28 – Research Paper: ‘Communicative English Language Teaching: It’s Concurrent Relevance – An overview’ by Jinendra Jain